


let's meet again next summer (and the next)

by penguinsmile



Category: Haikyuu!!, 蛍火の杜へ | Hotarubi no Mori e
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bittersweet Ending, Childhood Friends, Cooking, Fluff and Angst, Hotarubi no Mori e AU, Inspired by Hotarubi no Mori e, KageHina - Freeform, KageHina BigBang 2020, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Mutual Pining, bugs (mostly fireflies) are mentioned, descriptions of food, heavy yearning, hinata is hotaru, knives (to cut food), magical cat, mention of manga spoilers towards the end, tobio is gin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:22:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28171605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penguinsmile/pseuds/penguinsmile
Summary: “Today’s my last day here.” Hinata states, his arm automatically reaches for the back of his neck, his lips curl into a small, but nervous smile, “I have to go back home tomorrow.”Tobio absent-mindedly nods at Hinata, “Oh,” he mumbles, “Will you come back?”“Next summer...” Hinata places his other arm behind his neck and takes a few steps forwards and past Tobio. Tobio turns around, tailing Hinata.“And the next summer!” Hinata unfolds his arms, a small smile growing on his face. “Tobio.” The aforementioned raises his eyebrow in interest.Hinata beams, his brightness battling the beams of the setting sun.  “I promise, I’ll come here every summer.”Hinata is only eleven years old when he meets forest spirit Tobio. Through limitations, yet undeniable fondness, the pair spends all their summer days together, treasuring every moment.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Comments: 8
Kudos: 28
Collections: Kagehina Big Bang 2020





	let's meet again next summer (and the next)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is largely inspired by Hotarubi No Mori E, a short film. However, watching it isn't necessary to understand this story! I took a lot of creative freedom with this fic, so if some elements of Hotarubi No Mori E have changed, it is intentional. Also, if a character seems ooc, it's because their upbringing was very different from canon. Random note, but remember that unless mentioned otherwise, Tobio is wearing his yokai mask.
> 
> Also! this symbol "✧" means that a summer is beginning/ending.
> 
> This is also part of the Kagehina Big Bang 2020! Thank you to the mods for hosting this wonderful even _and_ thank you to the talented artist I worked with, check out their work!
> 
> here is their art for this fic: [their art!](https://twitter.com/strwberrymilked/status/1340498309278965760?s=11>their%20art!</a>%0A%0AAnd!%20Here%20is%20my%20playlist%20to%20this%20fic:%20<a%20href=)
> 
> and here is [the playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/08NhUB6Z4Ga5GQkbYSOtGV) to this fic :]
> 
> tw // major character death , bugs (mainly fireflies) , knives (just to cut food) , minor injuries

Panic floods through Hinata as he realizes he has definitely lost his way from his grandfather. Scurrying behind a large tree, Hinata takes a deep breath to try and calms his mind in order to clear up fogged memories. 

The small village of Takamori-machi was known for displaying the vastest forests in the region, also known as the Mountain Forest. Most villagers urge their children to stay away from the Mountain Gods Forest for the possible spirits that travelers swear they’ve spotted, but Hinata’s grandfather finally gave into Hinata’s incessant pleas for a short walk through through the edge of the forest. However, once Hinata’s grandfather told Hinata that they should start heading back, he cried out and dashed away as far as he can.

“Grandpa?” Hinata calls out as he slowly takes in his surroundings. There was only moss and trees for miles, no sign of any humans as far as he can tell. Stepping away from the tree, Hinata walks towards the path and warily makes his way towards what he’s decided is the way to his Grandfather’s house. 

After a few minutes of walking aimlessly, Hinata jumps as he hears the snap of a twig. His head turns towards the direction of the sound, but there’s nothing except a large bush. 

“What was that?” Hinata whispers to himself as he runs towards the bush with furrowed eyebrows. After reaching the bush, Hinata looks over the overgrown weeds and notices a shaking hand grasping the grass underneath their feet. 

“A human!” Hinata cries from joy and quickly makes his way around the bush. A boy, who looks to be around Hinata’s age, cringes as Hinata finally makes eye contact with the person, except Hinata was confused to see the boy was wearing a white yokai mask. 

“Stay away from me,” the boy declares as he inches away from Hinata. 

“I.. I need help!” Hinata exclaims as his hands bundle into fists, “I got lost and I can’t find my grandfather.” Hinata watches as the boy behind the mask stops inching away from Hinata and curiously looks up at him. After a moment of silence, the boy stands and evaluates the situation in front of him. He finally responds by reaching down for a broken log and holds it out to Hinata.

“Hold this.” 

“A log..?” Hinata questions, confusion written in between his eyebrows. The boy wearing a mask heaves a breath and puts his arm down.

“I’m not human, I belong to this forest, so humans can’t touch me.” The boy explains simply. Hinata’s eyes widen at the explanation, but quickly nods in response. 

“No way!” Hinata’s eyes sparkle from excitement, “You’re a spirit?” The boy across from him nods hesitantly, taken back from the sudden excitement. “I understand then, spirit-san. Can you help me find my grandfather?” 

“I can try…” After a moment of shock from the sudden name, the spirit mumbles under his mask and Hinata only breaks into a large smile at this response. 

“That’s good enough for me!” 

After holding out the log again, Hinata grasps the wood and the spirit helps the human onto the correct path. After walking in a few minutes of silence, Hinata’s curiosity bursts at the seams.

“I’m eleven years old, what about you?” A beat of silence passes.

“Ten,” The spirit responds shortly. 

“So I’m older!” Hinata grins, but his curiosity for the spirit only grows. “Do you like living in this forest, spirit?” 

“It’s alright, I guess.” The spirit responds plainly as he continues to look ahead, not sparing a glance to the jumping boy behind him. Hinata narrows his eyes at the raven hair ahead of him, confused at why he was giving such short and vague answers.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” There’s a beat of silence that follows as Hinata bores holes into the back of the spirit’s dark hair.

“I’ve only spoken to other spirits.” The spirit finally says, his free hand makes its way to the back of his head, “There’s only spirits and animals here.”

Hinata notices the spirit shudder as Hinata drops the log and makes his way to stand in front of his new companion. Careful to give him space, Hinata stares into the stark blue-grey eyes watching him curiously through the holes in the spirit’s mask. 

“My name is Shouyou Hinata, but Shouyou is fine.” Hinata stares up at the spirit expectedly, but he only looks down at the grass underneath themselves and places his arm behind his head.

“Tobio,” Tobio blurts out, “You can call me Tobio.” 

Hinata couldn’t see Tobio’s face clearly, but he is sure he’s bashful. Laughing, Hinata’s smile digs into his cheeks at the spirit’s answer. 

“Whats so funny?” Tobio asks, clearly confused at Hinata’s reaction. Hinata finally gathers himself together and takes a deep breath.

“You act like I’m asking you to give me lunch money!” Hinata giggles softly, “Don’t worry Tobio, i’m a nice person.” 

“Lunch money?” The spirit whispers as Hinata reaches for the log again. 

The two kids eventually makes their way through the entirety of the forest and closer to the village. When Tobio finally reaches the end of the forest and onto a path Hinata swears he recognizes, Hinata lets go of the wooden log and thanks Tobio. 

“Can we meet here tomorrow?” Hinata asks expectantly. Tobio watches the boy in front of him thoughtfully, interest present on his face.

“Sure,” Hinata’s eyes lights up at the short response. He then runs towards the village gate, but turns around to wave at Tobio. 

“Then I’ll see you here tomorrow morning,” Hinata calls out, “I’ll think of some games we can play, Tobio!” After hesitantly mirroring Hinata’s movements, Tobio’s hand wavers as Hinata turns around. He watches as the peculiar head of orange hair dashes out of sight.

“Please don’t go out too far this time, Shouyou.” Hinata fits on his sneakers as his grandfather nags Hinata for the nth time this morning. After Hinata had returned to his grandfather’s house, he found his grandfather standing anxiously near the entrance. Although he was definitely happy to see his grandson was safe, Hinata only received endless nagging that lasted into the night and morning. 

“Don’t worry grandpa,” Hinata tells his grandfather with assurance as he heads out the front door, clutching a small bundle in his hands, “I won’t go too far!”

Hinata dashes out of the front yard and towards the front of the village gates. Its still early morning, so there aren’t too many people down Hinata’s path. Hinate slows down to a stop as he finally reaches the spot he said goodbye to Tobio last evening. Tobio was still nowhere in sight, so Hinata stands in one spot, taking in the early morning summer sun. 

“Shouyou?” Hinata jumps at the low voice. He turns around, delighted to see the familiar white mask. 

“Tobio!” Jumping towards him, Tobio flinches backward. 

“How are you so energetic so early in the morning?” Tobio asks, a yawn escapes his mouth. The two turn towards the forest, automatically making their way to the path they were on the day prior.

“I ate almost twice the amount I usually eat for breakfast so I can have as much energy as I can!” Hinata chirps as he lightly swings the bundle in his hands. 

The two saunter aimlessly down the path with no particular direction in mind. 

“You said yesterday you’d think of games we can play?” Tobio asks, breaking the silence.

“Yup!” Hinata responds, “I’m looking for a good place we could play one right now, actually.” Tobio looks down to Hinata to see he was indeed looking around at their surroundings, analyzing the green scenery with a twinkle in his eyes. 

After finally picking a spot, Hinata places his belongings down besides a large tree trunk and turns to face Tobio. 

“Its called Hide and Seek! I’m going to close my eyes and count to ten,” Tobio watches as Hinata expressively begins to explain the game, “While I’m counting, you’re going to go hide and when I reach to ten, I have to find you!” Tobio nods, understanding the instructions.

It takes Hinata almost ten minutes to find Tobio behind a hidden strawberry bush. Frustration evident on his face, Hinata scowls at the spirit.

“You have a thing for bushes, don’t you?” Hinata grumbles under his breath as he crosses his arms across his chest. Tobio watches as Hinata grumpily makes his way to the counting tree, clearly upset he’s practically losing at the game he introduced. A small smile graces Tobio’s lips at Hinata’s reaction as he makes his way towards the human.

“You’re weird, Tobio!” Hinata scoffs as he runs off, “I’m going to hide in a really good place, just you watch!” 

“I’m not weird, you’re just not a good seeker.” Tobio calls out after Hinata, who only sticks his tongue out. 

After playing multiple rounds of Hide and Seek, Tobio and Hinata lean against the tree trunk with heaving chests. They had run around way more than necessary with Hinata constantly getting grumpy over his losses, and Tobio beginning to add more quips into their conversations.

“What's that?” Tobio asks, pointing at an orange bundle near the bottom of the tree trunk. He reaches out to grab for it, when Hinata protectively yanks it to his chest, his ears burning a brilliant pink. As Tobio looks closer at the bundle, he notices small white cats dotting the cloth in a pattern. “Do you like cats-”

“Shut up!” Hinata exclaims defensively as a pink hue paints his cheeks. Tobio stares through his mask at the boy with confusion etched across his face, clearly not understanding what was wrong. Hinata heaves a breath and places the bundle down in his lap. After pulling at the knot, Hinata draws out two bento boxes with a beam on his face. 

“Lunch!” Hinata holds out one of the bento boxes to Tobio. Hesitant, Tobio takes the bento box and stares down at the packed lunch; there was a single serving of rice alongside several side dishes. From the hesitance in Tobio’s movements, Hinata realizes the other doesn’t recognize the foods sitting in front of him. 

Hinata points to each part of Tobio’s bento box and introduces the foreign food to the spirit before putting his hands together and digging into his own portion of rice. 

“This is… an onigiri?” Tobio asks as he holds up the carefully put together triangular ball of steamed rice to his masked face, “It smells nice.” Hinata’s face breaks into a blinding smile at Tobio’s comment, eyes twinkling towards the other. 

“Right!” Hinata comments, “And it tastes good too!” Hinata grabs for his own onigiri as well and bites into the steamed rice. 

Tobio slightly lifts his mask, revealing only the lower half of his face, as he mirrors Hinata and slowly chews at the steamed rice. Hinata stares at Tobio’s mask as he awaits for a reaction to his grandfather’s work, and feels a euphoric sensation of delight run through him as Tobio nods his head in agreement at Hinata’s statement. 

“It does.” He lifts his mask again to bite into his onigiri again. Hinata promises Tobio to bring onigiris tomorrow and the next day as well and imprints the quick image of the spirit’s small smile as he ate his lunch. 

Like clockwork, Hinata spends everyday of the last month rising with the sun, stuffing down breakfast, and rushing out of the house with two bento boxes in hand. His grandfather didn’t think much of it; Hinata told him he’s made a new friend that enjoys onigiris, and he delightfully provided. 

“Tobio!” Hinata dashes towards the spirit, “Lets go to the pond you were talking about yesterday!” 

Tobio briefly mentioned a small pond that stood in front of Tobio’s personal cabin near the edge of the forest. Excited at the fact that Tobio one, has his own cabin and two, has a pond to play in fills Hinata with thrill and he insisted that Tobio take the two there. 

“Are you sure we’re not lost, Tobi?” 

“I told you not to call me that,” Tobio whips his head around, “And obviously I’m sure, I live there.” 

Hinata’s notices that as the weeks went by, Tobio found himself speaking more and more. Most of the time, they were quips he’d add to Hinata’s rambling. Sometimes, Hinata would catch the spirit rambling on to himself, but Hinata says nothing of it and only smiles to himself. 

“Are you sure? Because I feel like I’ve seen that tree two times—what is that?!” Hinata jumps and automatically hides behind the slightly taller spirit at the sight of a dark blue shadow lingering a few meters ahead of the pair. 

“Is that a human?” The dark blue mass morphs into a hybrid between a tiger and an eagle; Hinata realizes he is face to face with another spirit. The hybrid spirit’s beak clicks together as it approaches the pair, staring down menacingly. “Can I eat it, Tobio-chan?” Hinata jumps and feels oxygen depleting in his lungs under the wide eyes of the hybrid spirit. 

Tobio extends his arm to the side, covering the other spirit’s view of Hinata. 

“No, Shouyou is my friend.” 

“Is that so?” The spirit circles the two, its large, daunting eyes never leaving Hinata’s. “Human child. Please do not touch Tobio. If you do…” the spirit stops right in front of the pair, “I’ll really eat you!” The spirit breaks into a cackle at the loss of color from Hinata’s face. Hinata almost latches onto Tobio’s sleeve, when Tobio lets out a loud sneeze. 

A dark blue cloud erupts around the spirit as it transforms into a small bird, squawking at the sudden noise as it fumbles around.

“A crow?” Hinata steps out from behind Tobio to take a better look at the transformed spirit. The crow finally regains balance and takes flight. 

“Woah!” Hinata exclaims, watching curiously as the spirit flies out of sight. 

“Don’t worry about him too much.” Tobio turns his head to face the other, “He probably won’t eat you.” 

“Probably?” Hinata’s eyes widen in fear, “So he might?” He starts walking on ahead and Tobio follows after, shrugging his shoulders.

“I don’t think so, you probably don’t even taste good.” Even though Hinata can’t see Tobio’s face, he can tell Tobio’s scrunching his nose in disgust. 

“Tobi, can you at _least_ comfort me!” Hinata huffs, crossing his arms across his chest, “You’d be pretty sad if I got eaten, admit it.” 

“At least I wouldn’t have to hear that annoying nickname all the time.” 

“Tobi!” Hinata exclaims with laughter bubbling in his throat, “Tobi! Tobi! Tobi!” He takes off, running further down the seemingly endless path. 

“I’ll ask the spirit to eat you now!” Tobio shouts, he shakes his head in begrudging fondness before dashing after the bouncing redhead in the distance.

Hinata flicks at a firefly that buzzes near his ear as he ties up his and Tobio’s bento boxes and sets it at Tobio’s bedside table. After making sure he didn’t knock anything over inside the small home, Hinata breathes out a sigh of relief. He still feels guilty for knocking over Tobio’s mini dining table sitting in the middle of the cabin earlier this month when he first entered the cabin. Every now and then, Tobio pokes fun at him just for Hinata to groan in remorse.

He was alone, besides the occasional bug, inside the spirit’s cabin. After eating their lunch outside, Hinata offered to put away their bento boxes so they could play tag near the pond outside of Tobio’s cabin. 

As Hinata exits the cabin, a steady, cool breeze runs through his ginger locks. The sun stands low in the sky, but not too low, with a few wispy clouds passing through the sky. By the time he reaches the pond, Hinata stops in his tracks when his gaze falls on Tobio who was lying down on the grass, hands folded on top of his stomach as his chest rises and calms. 

Entranced in this peaceful version of Tobio, Hinata crouches down onto the grass. He leans closer to the spirit, mindful in his actions as he reaches out and lightly places a hand on top of the yokai mask that constantly lay on Tobio’s face. As he takes in a deep breath, Hinata slowly lifts the mask, but almost drops it from shock. 

Tobio’s eyes were shut, not a wrinkle worn on his face as he rests peacefully and Hinata admires the lack of a scowl from the spirit. Tobio’s raven bangs frames his forehead messily, not particularly swept to any side. As Hinata inches closer, determined to catch a better look, Tobio’s eyes flutter open and meets Hinata’s. 

A burst of panic runs through Hinata as he realizes how close he is to Tobio. Hinata slams the mask down onto Tobio’s face, blocking the spirit’s view of Hinata’s steaming face. Tobio’s body cringes from the sudden pain that bursts through his head.

“What was that for, idiot?!” Tobio jerks up, his mask falling against his knee. For the first time, Hinata receives a full blow of Tobio’s glare, his eyebrows were furrowed as he holds a hand to the middle of his forehead. Hinata’s eyes widens at the new view of Tobio’s scowl, but quickly realizes that there’s no true malice behind it. 

“I shouldn’t have taught you that word,” Hinata pouts to himself, arms crossed over his chest. Tobio narrows his eyes at him, his face deadpanning.

“Who attacks someone while they’re sleeping, _Hinata_?” Tobio emphasizes this time. 

“Who pretends to sleep in the middle of the day, _Tobio_?” 

“I was just resting! What, I can’t rest now?” 

Hinata narrows his eyes back at the spirit, “I didn’t say that.” He then unfurls his arms and digs them into the grass underneath him, his legs comfortably laid out in front of him. “Why do you wear your mask anyway? You look fine without it!” 

“I look...fine?” Tobio asks inquisitively, “What do you mean by that?” 

“You’re pretty! I guess that’s… the word.” Hinata trails off when his words settle in and notices the surprised look on Tobio’s face. 

“Pretty?” Tobio quirks his head in curiosity.

“Yes, pretty! And don’t just avoid my question!” Hinata babbles as his ears burn red; he wasn’t expecting the spirit to be so caught by his comment. 

He means it, too. In the moment, Tobio’s face had seemed so delicate and his expression was soft, as if he were having a peaceful dream. Hinata glances at Tobio, who was fidgeting with the mask in his hands, and grins nonchalantly.

“Its okay if you don’t want to say-” 

“No, it’s fine.” Tobio shrugs. He glances up at Hinata, his expression completely still, “I look more like a spirit with my mask on, that’s why I wear it.” 

Hinata’s mouth forms an o-shape, “That’s cool!” he chirps. Tobio turns his head to him, surprise written over his face. “Your mask is really cool, too,” Hinata points to the white yokai mask sitting in the spirit’s lap.

Hinata giggles to himself at his comment, and looks back at Tobio who was staring back at him in awe, eyes wide in wonder. 

Tobio hums to himself and slightly smiles, “I guess it is pretty cool.”

For the first time since Hinata’s met Tobio, he finds his words stuck in his throat.

The sun is settling in the Western horizon as the sky’s colors slowly darkens and swirls into a mixture of oranges and pinks as the duo navigate their way through the forest. The day was coming to a close and Hinata needs to return to his grandfather’s home. However…

“Spit it out already,” Tobio mumbles as the pair jumps over a particularly large tree root. Tobio steadies himself and turns around to stares down at Hinata who is currently shocked at the sudden confrontation. “You look like you’re thinking really hard about something.” 

Hinata loosens the tension in his shoulders and returns the stare, completely genuine. Tobio left his mask back at his cabin, so Hinata receives full view of Tobio’s piercing, but curious gaze. 

“Today’s my last day here.” Hinata states, his arm automatically reaches for the back of his neck, his lips curl into a small, but nervous smile, “I have to go back home tomorrow.” 

Tobio absent-mindedly nods at Hinata, “Oh,” he mumbles, “Will you come back?” 

“Next summer...” Hinata places his other arm behind his neck and takes a few steps forwards and past Tobio. Tobio turns around, tailing Hinata. 

“And the next summer!” Hinata unfolds his arms, a small smile growing on his face. “Tobio.” The aforementioned raises his eyebrow in interest.

Hinata beams, his brightness battling the beams of the setting sun. “I promise, I’ll come here every summer.” 

✧

“Hinata, don’t eat so fast!” Hinata’s grandfather scolds the 12-year old boy. Hinata glances up at his grandfather, cheeks full with egg and mixed rice.

“I have to meet my friend! I haven’t seen him in so long.” Hinata says before stuffing down the last of his Tamago Kake Gohan. He stands up from his seat and places his dishes in the sink when his grandfather tells him to leave them there.

“I’ll wash up for you, go get ready.” Hinata’s grandfather smiles at him before Hinata beams in delight and runs off to his room.

Hinata enters the small bedroom and crouches down to the floor. After rummaging through small knick knacks and drawings underneath his bed, he finally pulls out a ball that took both of Hinata’s hands to hold. 

Last summer, Hinata forgot to bring the ball to Takamori-machi and suffered from the lack of practice by the time summer came to an end. Luckily, he remembered it this time and the ideation of practicing with another being excites every nerve of his body.

By the time he returns to the kitchen, Hinata’s grandfather was waiting for him at the table with two packed lunches. 

After wishing his grandfather a nice day, Hinata dashes out the small house and clutches his belongings close to his chest. When he reaches the outskirts of the village and has entered the forest, sweat lines down his back from the multiple items he was carrying. He knows Tobio wasn’t aware of the exact date Hinata would return to the village, so he should have expected the spirit to not wait for him at their usual spot. Hinata could have just left the volleyball at the house, but he badly wants to introduce Tobio to his new interest. 

Hinata settles down under a tree and lets go of the ball and lunches. He leans his head up with his eyes shut and takes a moment to catch his breath before he jumps up in surprise.

“Tobio?!” Hinata shrieks as he quickly stands up. Tobio is settled on a sturdy branch above Hinata and waves at the shocked boy. 

“Shouyou,” Tobio says. Hinata stares at the spirit, bafflement fills his face at Tobio’s nonchalance.

“How’d you get up there?” Hinata asks curiously, but quickly stops himself, “No wait! How’d you find me?” 

Tobio shrugs, “I didn’t. You came to me,” Tobio responds. Before Hinata shouts about how ridiculous that claim is, Tobio hops down from his spot and lands at the bottom of the tree causing Hinata to scamper back, but quickly rush towards the spirit. 

“Are you okay?!” Hinata almost puts a hand out to touch Tobio’s back, but quickly remembers the reality of their relationship. He retracts his hands when he realizes Tobio stands on his feet easily and only dusts off his shorts and adjusts the mask sitting on his face from the swift fall. 

“What?” Tobio asks as he narrows his eyes through the mask. Hinata crosses his arms over his chest, a thoughtful look on his face. 

“Tobio, are you a cat?” Hinata stands still, his face unmoving and serious as he gazes deeply at the small eye openings of Tobio’s mask until he bursts into laughter. Tobio stands in place, scowling down at the boy buckling down. 

Tobio’s eyes wander towards the plethora of items sitting at the bottom of the tree. As Hinata collects himself, Tobio saunters towards the trunk and drabs at the slightly large ball.

“A ball?” Tobio asks, hands firmly gripping the ball’s leather so it won’t slip through. Hinata immediately stops laughing for a moment and beams at the mention of the ball he’s brought along.

“It's called a volleyball!” Hinata exclaims, “We can play volleyball with it.” 

Tobio stares at Hinata curiously, “Volleyball?” Hinata’s mouth shapes into an “o” in realization.

“Yeah, volleyball! It's where two teams volley a ball—like that one!—” Hinata points at the volleyball in Tobio’s hands, “back and forth over a net.”

Tobio nods in understanding, taking in the information with a look of awe, “How do you earn points?”

“When the ball falls to the ground!” Hinata chirps, “Let’s play, Tobio! I promise I’ll go easy on you!” Hinata skips over to Tobio, tip-toeing to meet Tobio’s masked face perfectly. 

Tobio grasps at the volleyball, interested. “I can already tell this is something I can beat you in.” 

“As if!” Hinata scoffs in disbelief, “I’m literally introducing you to volleyball and this is how you treat me?”

“You also introduced me to Tag, Hide-And-Seek, and Hopscotch, yet you sucked at all of them.” 

“I did not suck,” Hinata pouts, “You’re just a _bit_ better!” 

“Hah! You admit I’m better.” Hinata couldn’t tell for sure, but he could tell Tobio is smiling smugly under his mask. Hinata folds his arms, narrowing his eyes. 

“Then I challenge you to a rematch, Tobio! I’ll be better at you in volleyball, just watch.” 

Tobio shoves the volleyball towards Hinata’s chest, “Then teach me how to play first, idiot.” 

Hinata glances down at the ball, back up at Tobio, and then slowly takes the ball. He places the balls of his feet firm against the ground and sends the spirit a grin, determination and excitement beaming off him. 

Hinata stifles a laugh as Tobio groans in frustration from another missed receive. Although Hinata has a little more experience than the spirit from playing volleyball with few classmates from school, he knows his receives aren’t the best either. All Tobio needed was a little support. 

“Just-” Hinata bends his knees into receiving position and extends his arms in front of him while grasping at his hands, “stand like this, okay?” Hinata himself has barely mastered that position himself, but he’s seen the cool national volleyball players stand in this position before receiving a strong serve from the opposing team, so he knows this has to be a good start. 

Tobio analyzes Hinata from head to toe and Hinata begins to feel nervous under the spirit’s inquiring, but heavy stare. After mimicking him, Hinata stands up from his position to grab the fallen volleyball and stands a good distance away from Tobio. 

After tossing up the volleyball and making it arch towards Tobio, Hinata moves back as Tobio brings his arms up smoothly to receive the boss. The boss hits against against his red arms and launches into the air to land just a meter behind Hinata. 

“How’d you do that already?!” Hinata exclaims, mouth hanging open. Tobio shrugs, but he fails to hide the surprised and growing smile on his face. Hinata grabs for the fallen volleyball and holds it in between his two hands, “Do it again!” 

The pair continues to practice receiving (or at least, tries to, tossing the ball to each other was a whole challenge in itself) until the sun reaches the middle of the sky. Their arms are red with ache as they sit down to share lunch. As Tobio leans back against the tree trunk he shuts his eyes with an onigiri in hand. He breathes in deeply, attempting to calm down his pounding heart. Hinata brings his arms out, staring down at his red arms. He stares at them in awe; this is the first time someone else has trained with Hinata for so long. He turns to Tobio, the look of awe on his face remaining. The spirit seems to understand immediately.

“Let’s practice some more after lunch.” Tobio says after biting into his onigiri. Hinata nods and excitement of practicing with the similarly restless spirit fills every crevice of his mind.

The late afternoon sun beats down on the back of Hinata’s neck as he jumps over a particularly large tree root. In his arms, he holds remnants of a large fishing net bundled up and close to his chest. After a week of practicing receives and serving, Hinata thought it was time they finally rewarded themselves with practicing with a proper net– well, as proper as they can get. 

If Hinata were to be honest with himself, Tobio has definitely improved with his receives, maybe even better than Hinata at this point- but Hinata would never admit that out loud. Nonetheless, Hinata couldn’t deny that Tobio has been better than he was at the start of the week when they first started playing volleyball together. Tobio had a knack for picking up games and activities the pair play together rather quickly, so Hinata couldn’t say he isn’t completely surprised the spirit has picked up the sport so well.

Even so, neither of them were perfect. As a result, Hinata had offered to go into town mid-afternoon while the pair were practicing serves. Hinata informed Tobio of the nets the Girls Volleyball team at his school would practice with and that volleyball is actually played over a net. 

So soon enough, Hinata ran out of the forest to jog through town and find a nearby fishing store that sold fishing supplies. He had an idea where they can use an old fishing net as a replacement for a proper volleyball net. How they may make use of the net is up to the pair later, but all Hinata knows for now is that they definitely needed a net in order to further their training, even neither had an idea as to how to make the net stand.

When Hinata found his way back to the pond in front of Tobio's cabin, he immediately notices the spirit was no where to be seen. 

"Tobio!" Hinata yells out, “I got the net! It's really big though, so we might have to cut it down." 

Hinata is only met with silence in response. He places the net down on the grass and walks around the pond, turning his head for where the spirit may possibly be. 

"Tobio, I didn't know we were playing hide-and-seek today..." Hinata mumbles to himself as he glances over the nearby bushes. After double checking the trees over him, Hinata jumps when he hears the creaking of wood behind him. 

"How are you so loud even when you're not speaking," a familiar voice states. Hinata breaks out into a grin as he runs towards the spirit and towards the cabin. Tobio was holding a platter of onigiri, or more specifically, he was holding the lunch Hinata's grandfather made for the pair. 

Except a closer look tells an onlooker that Tobio had changed up the onigiri. They were steaming hot, and had small designs over the molded rice. Hinata places his face near the platter, eyes wide with shock.

"Did you use the extra nori to make faces of the onigiri?" Hinata asks, excitement bubbling up in his voice, "That's so cute!" He tries to grab for one of the onigiris, but Tobio pushes the plate away from the former.

"Not yet, hothead," Tobio scolds, "I still have to do a few more."

"What!" Hinata crosses his arms over his chest, "Why can't I eat them while you work on the other ones?" Tobio stares blankly at Hinata, thoughts settling in. He shrugs his shoulders and glances down at the decorated onigiri.

"Okay um..." He glances down at the plate, looking through the different faces he cut out onto the onigiris. When Tobio hands Hinata one with a large mouth and big, round circles for eyes, Hinata eagerly places his hands out to accept. 

"This one's silly." Hinata carely holds the rice ball, "Why did you give me this one?" 

"It looks like you." Tobio states bluntly. 

"Me?!" Hinata shouts, glancing down at the onigiri again and then back to the spirit, not sure if he should feel complimented or offended.

"Yeah, because you always look at everything with these huge eyes and your mouth is always open in amazement like you're trying to catch flies- _Ow!_ " 

Tobio fails to dodge the stick that Hinata threw his way. Hinata glares at the spirit, but with no real threat behind his eyes.

"I could have dropped the food, dumbass!" Tobio yells.

"No you wouldn't have," Hinata reaches down to the grass and fakes throwing another stick towards the spirit again, but only ends up giggling, "Okay! I'm going to eat this, but lets go inside first." 

Tobio nods, and lets Hinata inside the cabin before closing the door behind him. 

When Hinata enters, his eyes naturally gravitates towards the dimming flame in the small stove sitting in the middle of the cabin. Hinata is close to walking towards the warmth, but quickly retreats when Tobio sits at the table besides the stove.

Hinata glances around the cabin and jogs over to the wash bucket to cleanse his hands. After drying them, he sits across from Tobio, recites 'itadakimasu' and bites into his decorated onigiri with much anticipation.

Like usual, his mouth waters from how well-made his grandfather's food always tends to be. But this time, his stomach performs a special little flip thinking of the amount of care Tobio put into decorating his grandfather's onigiris. When Hinata takes the half-bitten onigiri out of his mouth, Tobio is looking down at the table intently, carving out a smile from nori sheets with a small knife.

"It tastes good," Hinata comments. Tobio turns his head up, one of his eyebrows raised. 

"I didn't make it." 

"I know that! But still, this tastes different for some reason, you know?" Hinata rambles, "Like it feels more special." 

"That doesn't make sense." Tobio replies, confused. Hinata only shrugs and bites into the rest of the onigiri.

"I don't get it either, but it probably has to do with your decorations!" Hinata answers, "Hey maybe it has to do with your spirit hands! Your magic hands made the onigiri better-" 

"That makes even less sense, Shou," Tobio laughs out a breath, "And I don't have magic hands." 

"You're magic. Thus, magic skin, magic mask, magic hands." Hinata explains, "Your magic probably snuck into the onigiri, you know!" 

Tobio shrugs his shoulders, "If it tastes better, then I guess I should make onigiris too, then." 

Hinata's eyes widen at the suggestion, and he stands up in the chair from shock at a sudden idea. 

"Then you should come over to my grandfather's house someday! He can teach you!" 

Tobio's eyes widen, shocked at the suggestion. Hinata detects the myriads of thoughts flashing through the spirits eyes from just a glance and shakes his hands in front of him with a sure grin. 

"Don't worry about it! We just need to tell him that you don't like being touched, it'll be fine!" 

Tobio places a finger on his chin thoughtfully before humming. "Okay, that sounds alright, but..." 

Hinata raises his eyebrow in curiosity as Tobio glances nervously to the ground.

"I've never really met another human other than you," Tobio mumbles, "What if he doesn't understand?" He turns to face Hinata. 

"Oh, that makes sense you're worried," Hinata starts as he sits back down in his seat. He gazes at Tobio, giving him an assuring glace, "But its my grandfather! And I know my grandfather really well, so even if he makes you feel bothered, I know how to talk to him." Hinata points his thumb at himself, confidence brimming like beams through him. Tobio couldn't help but slightly smile to himself, taken back by Hinata's assurance. 

"And he'll teach me how to make onigiri?" Tobio asks. 

"Yeah! As many as you want!" 

"Okay, then i'll go." 

Hinata leaps up from his chair in celebration and pumps a fist into the air. When he glances down at the table to see Tobio smiling to himself as he returns to cutting up a smiley face from seaweed, Hinata finds himself mirroring the small smile. 

"They probably won't be as good as my grandpa's though," Hinata teases lightly.

"I have a knife in my hand, Shou." Tobio mumbles under his breath. 

"Tobi that's cold!" 

Hinata dug the thick, wooden stick into the ground with as much force as he can muster. Tobio is standing around four meters across from him, also pushing a similar, large stick into the ground. After searching the nearby area, the pair found strewn tree branches lying on the ground and agreed they were perfect to tie the nets to. 

“Tobio take this side of the net!” 

It takes around half an hour to get the process done because neither of them were the best at tying tight knots. The net stands at around one and a half meters tall, which is taller than either of the pair. Tobio keeps tying the knots too loosely, so since Hinata stood at a few centimeters taller than Tobio, he graciously sticks out his tongue at Tobio (who stands still with his arms crossed over his chest, unamused) as he tiptoes on top of a tree log to tie the net. 

“I think I got it!” Hinata exclaims at he ties down the last corner of the net. 

“Looks like your height came into use today,” Tobio scoffs. Hinata jumps off the tree stump, a victorious grin blooming across his face. 

“Sounds like someone is jealouusss!” Hinata drawls teasingly. 

“That’s stupid! You get too excited over being just a _few_ centimeters taller than me.” Tobio’s ears burn red as he sputters in denial; Hinata’s grin only deepens. 

“Sure. Deny it as much as you want, Tobio!- _Hey!_ ” Hinata quickly dodges the volleyball thrown at him and turns to the spirit whose cheeks were fully blossoming pink. Hinata feels his own cheeks burn at the color and giggles as Tobio continues to sputter. 

“I’m- I am not denying anything, dumbass!” 

“Alright, alright, that’s fine,” Hinata’s grin turns softer as he watches Tobio, “Then let’s play volleyball now! We can finally practice receiving over net!” He tosses the volleyball to Tobio. 

Tobio nods. He walks to the other side of the net and turns his body to practice a standard serve. When the ball hits the net, Tobio groans in frustration, but Hinata cheers him on.

“C’mon Tobio, you can do it!” Hinata exclaims, “If you can’t I’ll do a better serve than you!” Tobio furrows his eyebrows at this and jogs over to the fallen volleyball.

“That’s impossible.” Tobio mumbles under his breath as he steps back into serving position. Hinata almost responds with an angry quip, when he notices that Tobio has quickly fallen into _that_ mood. 

By _that_ mood, Hinata means those small moments where Tobio would zero in all his energy and thoughts into every single movement he made. Every step he took seemed so purposeful and Hinata felt the air thin around him. In attempt to combat it, Hinata places all his concentration on the ball Tobio was holding, determined to receive it. 

When the ball flies over the net, Hinata quickly steps to the left to move his arms under the volleyball and the ball just barely makes it over the other side of the net. Tobio moves under the ball and Hinata finds his eyes widening at the spirit’s speed and efficiency at receiving. The ball flies over to his side of the net and Hinata is just a few seconds late before the ball falls to the ground.

“Let’s do that again!” Hinata says as he grabs for the volleyball and dusts off his shorts. Tobio nods in agreement and waits as Hinata decides he wants to serve. 

After a few more rounds of receiving over the net, Hinata finally feels confident in one of his receives, but his eyes almost pops out when Tobio receives from his side with the tips of his fingers and tosses the ball over the net. 

“Tobio you know how to toss?!” Hinata shrieks loudly. Tobio stares incredulously at him for the sudden volume.

“What does that mean?” he asks. Hinata bounces on the balls of his feet in excitement as his hands balls up in fists in front of him. 

“What you just did!” Hinata responds, “Tobio, Tobio do it for me! Toss for me!” 

"I don't even know what that is!-"

"Don't be silly, it's what you just did!" Hinata exclaimed with a new determined look across his face.

"That was just a-" Tobio glances at Hinata again, catching the insistent gaze made towards his way. He sighs, and walks over to the abandoned volleyball on the ground and holds it hesitantly over his head. "Like this?" 

Hinata shakes his head. Tobio's hands are too close to his face, and the setters on TV usually had their hands way farther. After telling Tobio to stretch his arms a little more and mimicking the position the setters he'd watch would stand in, Tobio copies. 

"Okay, I think I get it." Tobio nods after Hinata explains the process of a run-up and the setter's crucial role in spiking. Hinata gives the spirit a thumbs up before dashing towards the back line they had drawn in the dirt. 

He starts off slow, taking a few large strides, and then his pace picks up immediately. He blurs past Tobio and crouches low before springing above with an outreached hand. The jump was stunning, and Tobio almost forgets to toss the volleyball. But when he does remember, the volleyball is tossed with too much force and smacks Hinata square onto the side of his head.

"Gwahhh!" Hinata falls to the ground with way too much force and lands harshly onto the grass beneath them. The side of his body aches, but not nearly as much as the sharp sting he feels on top of his cheek. 

"Shouyou!" Hinata turns his head to see Tobio quickly running towards him. Hinata manages to sit up, but winces in pain. 

"Don't move to much yet, dumbass." Tobio mumbles as he crouches down to Hinata.

Hinata almost replies, but feels his voice catch in his throat as Tobio stares closer at him. Hinata's hands grasps the grass under them, his eyes glancing towards anywhere but the piercing, stormy eyes peering through Tobio's white mask. 

"Does it hurt... there?" Tobio asks quietly as he points to the reddening bruise on Hinata's cheek. He nods, affirming. Tobio sighs. 

"My bad, I should have done that more carefully-"

"No!" Hinata's eyes widen and he shakes his hands in the space between Tobio and him, "You don't need to apologize or anything! It was just your first time, I should have showed you how to set better instead of getting so excited." One of Hinata's hands finds its way to the back of his head as he sheepishly laughs, "I'll just go back to your cabin and wash wash the bruise and cover it up! Then we can play more!" 

Tobio stares hesitantly at the bruise, then to Hinata's eyes before he finally nods. "I... okay. But we're stopping if it starts hurting again." 

It’s in these the rare moments Tobio shows Hinata compassion where he finds himself imprinting the moment to the back of his mind. Despite the mask over Tobio's face, Hinata feels the genuity emanating from Tobio's words and knows that the spirit only means well.

Hinata beams, "Didn't know you could be so soft, Tobi." He stifles a laugh as the spirit deadpans and reaches for a nearby object to hold. Hinata's laugh ripples through the air as he stands to his feet and jogs away from the stick thrown his way.

Hinata slips off his shoes and places them beside the door before turning to face the spirit standing alone a few feet away in the garden. He is nervously fiddling with the mask on his face and Hinata raises his eyebrow.

"Should I keep my mask on?" Tobio asks, nerves evident in his voice. 

"You could keep it on if you want to, Tobio," Hinata responds, understanding. Tobio's hands falter for a moment, but then he grabs hold of the yokai mask and removes it from his face. 

Most of the time, Tobio keeps his mask on. But during the few times he took it off, Hinata often found himself in awe at the captivating aura Tobio surrounds himself in. He's never met any human that has carried themself the way Tobio does and over time, Hinata learns to accept that it must have something to do with how Tobio is in fact, not a human.

"I think I want to go like this," his hand drops to his sides, and he finally takes a few steps towards Hinata. After slipping out of the shoes he dons everyday besides Hinata's shoes, Hinata steps into the house. 

"I’m home!" Hinata calls out. His grandfather quickly comes out the kitchen door, shock evident on his face and his eyebrows raised high. 

"Shouyou! You're here early today-" the older man stops in his tracks when he notices Hinata beaming, glancing towards the boy besides him. When his grandfather takes in the new presence in his house, a warm smile graces his features and he crouches down low. 

"Hello, are you Shouyou's friend?" he asks. Tobio nods.

"I guess," Tobio mumbles quietly under his breath. Hinata dramatically places a hand to his chest.

"What do you mean you guess?" His grandfather laughs and a ghost of a smile appears across Tobio's lips, but it is masked with a neutral, pointed expression. Hinata considers this a win for himself. 

"What's your name, Hinata's maybe-friend?" Hinata watches as his grandfather watches Tobio through attentive eyes. Tobio's eyes glances around the hallway before answering before hesitantly looking back up at the older man.

"Tobio," He responds, a noticeable firmness added to his voice. “Hinata promised me that I can learn how to make onigiri here-” he pauses when the older man lets out a soft chuckle. 

"Nice to meet you, Tobio!" Hinata's eyes widen when his grandfather sticks a hand out in front of him and towards Tobio, “I don’t mind at all, teaching you how to make onigiri that is.” 

"Wait, grandpa! Tobio doesn't really feel comfortable touching people." Hinata quickly explains, his mind searching for a way to somehow explain Tobio's need for a lack of touch without revealing that he is a spirit. His grandfather turns to him and his mouth creates an o-shape. When Tobio shifts uncomfortably under his gaze, Hinata’s heart pounds against his chest as he notices the older man glance curiously at the mask in the spirit’s hands.

"Oh!" His grandfather nods his head. Tobio flinches slightly when the older man’s hand turns into a thumbs up, but he quickly relaxes at the calm smile given his way. 

“Don’t worry about it Tobio, not a problem.” Hinata’s grandfather tells the spirit. After standing up, he heads back to the kitchen, motioning for the younger two to follow. 

Hinata quickly turns to Tobio, his eyes turning to moons. “See! Nothing to worry about!” Tobio nods his head, agreeing. It had been a while since Hinata had seen Tobio this quiet, but he realizes its probably because his grandfather is the second human the spirit has properly met. After setting down his mask at the table besides the front door, Tobio turns to follow the older man.

When the pair makes their way to the kitchen, they notice Hinata’s grandfather rummaging through the cabinets. He’s pouring a few cups of rice from a larger jar into a bowl of water to wash the rice. When he looks down, he notices Tobio’s wide, curious eyes are glued on the older man. 

“Do you know how to wash rice, Tobio?” Hinata’s grandfather asks.

“Yes!” He immediately chirps in response, “I eat rice all the time, its my favorite.” 

“Oh!” The older man grins warmly and Hinata finds himself mirroring the smile. He’s glad his grandfather has taken a liking to the spirit. “Do you want to wash the rice then?” When Tobio nods, the older man hands the bowl over to the younger and he immediately sits down at the kitchen table.

“Wait! Make sure to wash your hands!” 

Hinata sits beside Tobio as the spirit swirls around the rice in the water with his hands. His grandfather heads to the backyard, telling the pair he’ll be back with some extra ingredients. 

“Don’t forget to blink, Tobio!” Hinata jumps in surprise when the spirit retaliates to his teasing with a splash of water to his face, “Oh I’m definitely getting you back for that one!” 

Comfortable silence, with only the sounds of water and rice hitting against Tobio’s hands and the plastic bowl resonating through the room, falls between the duo. Hinata’s hand is holding up his head as he watches the spirit’s eyes squint in concentration at his simple task. There are splashes of water speckled over his shirt, and his hands, and somehow his chin, are covered in grains of sticky rice; Hinata smiles to himself at how silly the spirit looks, and he knows he is definitely going to tease the other about it when he finds the chance.

When Hinata falls out of his trance, he pushes himself off his chair and walks to the tall shelves above the kitchen counter. He reaches up for a package of nori sheets and a pair of scissors while standing on his tiptoes and almost falls backward when he finally has both items in his hands.

“Looks like you were struggling there,” Tobio quips with a small smirk.

“Oh shut up! You would have been worse!”

“You’re _barely_ taller.” 

“But I’m taller.” Hinata comments smugly, but it’s quickly erased when he feels drops of water tossed to his head. The two glare at each other for a few seconds, then burst into laughter. 

“You’re such a dumbass.” Tobio laughs as he rinses the rice from water at the sink. Hinata smiles smally to himself at the fluttering sound; he wants to hear Tobio’s laugh more often. 

Hinata has cut through most of the nori sheets by the time Tobio declares the rice clean enough to cook. 

“Only took you five decades, your highness.” 

“That was only ten minutes!” Tobio responds, but then raises an eyebrow “Your highness?” 

Hinata doesn’t look up from the nori sheet he’s cutting through, eyebrows scrunched together in concentration, “Like- like royalty? You’re like a magical prince.” Hinata giggles to himself at the comparison and looks up, “Anyways, ten minutes is too long! Washing rice should take at most two minutes.” 

“I just wanted to make sure it was definitely clean, what if we ate dirty rice?”

By the time Hinata’s grandfather had returned, he was carrying three jars of different fillings and three plates in his hands. Hinata jumps up from his seat to aid his grandfather and places the plates on the kitchen table. 

“This rice is so clean!” Hinata’s grandfather exclaims as he examines the full bowl of clean, white grains of rice. Tobio sticks his tongue out to Hinata behind the older man and smiles smugly as Hinata glares back.

Hinata’s grandfather sets down a large plate of freshly molded rice and filling in front of the pair who are seated at the kitchen table, waiting. 

“Use those nori sheets,” the older man points, “to wrap around the rice.” Hinata and Tobio slightly leans into the table when he grabs a strip of nori and blankets it around the onigiri. He sprinkles sesame seeds at the top of the rice and holds it out to the pair to take note.

“It looks like it’s going to go to sleep,” Hinata comments.

“It looks yummy,” Tobio adds before flushing at the boisterous laugh ringing through the Hinata’s kitchen.

“Wait just a bit, after wrapping these onigiri, you two can have your fill.” 

By the time Hinata’s grandfather turns around to clean the dishes and rice cooker, Hinata and Tobio begins to wrap the triangular molds of rice. After blanketing an onigiri with a nori sheet, Hinata grabs an extra and begins to cut out out small pieces. 

“What are you doing?” Tobio asks after sprinkling sesame seeds at the top of his onigiri. 

“I’m making you!” Hinata exclaims as he presses a small nori frown onto the rice. Tobio leans closer to him, curious, but then shocked.

“I don’t look like that!” Hinata snickers.

“You look like this right now!” 

“I do not!” 

“Yes you do!” 

“Boys, settle down.” Hinata’s grandfather interjects, causing the two to close their mouths. Tobio sends him a distasteful look as Hinata grins in satisfaction, setting down the onigiri with an angry frown onto an empty plate. 

By the time all the onigiri had been wrapped and decorated, Tobio leans into the large platter of onigiris they had filled up. 

“Think you can finish all that, Tobio?” Hinata’s grandfather muses. 

“Yes!” Tobio chirps. The older man grins, but Hinata quickly turns to the spirit.

“I bet I can finish more onigiris than you can!” he challenges. Tobio glares at the former, disbelieving. 

“You’re on.” 

They sit comfortably on the front steps of the front porch, bare feet hanging out. Hinata grabs for another onigiri ( _this one looks like grandpa_ , he thinks to himself) as he shakes his legs up and down. Tobio sits on the other side of the step, grains of rice decorating his cheeks as he takes a bite out of his fourth onigiri. 

Hinata breathes in the crisp evening air. At this time of the day, Hinata would usually be saying his goodbyes to the spirit, heading back to his grandfather’s house. But for once, today was an exception; the spirit had come over to him instead.

Hinata turns to the spirit after eating the last of his warm onigiri, but is taken back by the spirit’s warm glow. The sun is setting over the western horison and its powerful rays were shimmering against Tobio’s soft, but calm features. He has already finished all of his onigiris (he also somehow ate seven onigiri, and compared to Hinata’s five, Hinata knows he lost their challenge so he chooses to begrudgingly not bring it up), so he was lying back, his hands flat out against the wooden porch beneath him as he carefully watches what seems to be fireflies from a distance. 

“Do you like them?” Hinata asks softly, suddenly aware of the quiet ambiance around them. Tobio nods. 

“I like animals,” Tobio responds, “Insects are really cool, too.” He stands up from his seat, making his way to the shrubbery at the front of the yard. When he comes back, he has a firefly sitting on his palm. After watching it glow, Hinata notes the serene twinkle Tobio holds in his eyes as he gazes at the small insect. He sits beside Hinata, carefully cupping the firefly. 

“You can touch them.” Hinata states, amazed as he watches the spirit. Tobio turns to Hinata, smiling genuinely. 

“Bugs are really cool, but I really like cats too. And Floating Pudus... they’re really quiet and don’t make that much noise.” The firefly has escaped Tobio’s palms by the time Tobio begins to ramble about the forest animals, his eyes only growing wider as he recalls a memory he’s had with a baby kitten that spent a whole day with him before her mother found her. He spent a whole two weeks looking for the kitten, but eventually gave up.

Hinata stifles a giggle at the story, in awe over this side of the spirit, but his smile gives away his feelings. 

“You should find her again so you can have a friend while I’m gone.” Hinata interjects. 

“Yeah, if I can find her- _hey_ I have other friends.” 

“Reeaallly?” Hinata drawls teasingly, “where are they?” 

“Um, well.” Tobio starts, biting his lip in thought, “There’s Yatagarasu-san…” 

“Garasu? You mean- the crow spirit!?” Hinata cringes at the memory from a year ago. He starkly remembers the spirit threatening to eat Hinata if he touches Tobio and glances over to the protective arm that had been outstretched over him back then. 

“He’s the one that took me in when I was a baby and helped me learn how to take care of myself,” Tobio answers, a thoughtful look crosses his face. 

“Yatagarasu-san seems really protective over you,” Hinata recalls the speculative, almost angry glare the crow spirit had ingrained into his memory. If he didn’t know to not touch Tobio before, he _definitely_ knoes now. The dark, but overpowering presence of the crow spirit was difficult to forget. 

Tobio hums in agreement, “He trusts you more now, but he’s still nervous about me going out too far.” 

“He trusts me?” Hinata smiles at this, “Does he know you’re here?” 

The spirit quickly shakes his head, eyes widening at the thought. Hinata bursts into laughter, the sound breaking the quiet atmosphere. Tobio rolls his eyes, but the exasperated looks remains. 

“He’d never let me go out again, I think.” Tobio states with his arms crossed over his chest as Hinata wipes away a fake tear.

“Then we can’t let him know, but if he ever figures it out, I’ll make sure to visit you.” 

“As if I want to see you more than I already do,” Tobio sneers, eyes squinting into a small glare. 

“Who else are you going to play volleyball with? Yatagarasu-san and some dancing pudus?” Hinata teases, a smile playing across his lips at how easy it is to tease the spirit.

“ _Floating_ pudus!” Tobio corrects, “And Yatagarasu-san is too busy ruling over the forest spirit world to spend that much time with me, so no.” 

This catches Hinata’s attention, _‘ruling the forest spirit world’_? So the crow spirit was a leader. That made sense, given his natural aura of power and overwhelming magical ability. 

“Isn’t he like… your parent?” Tobio raises his eyebrow in confusion, so Hinata searches for the words to explain, “You know, someone that raises you and makes you breakfast and spends time with you…”

“No, Yatagarasu-san has too many spirits to take care of. He’s taught me everything I need to know to survive in the forest though, so he’s really amazing to me still.” Tobio juts his lips out in thought, “Either way, I’m only a half-spirit, so I’m not even fully his kind,” he finishes with a shrug. 

By the time the words settle into his head Hinata almost jumps up, but is too hyper aware of Tobio’s proximity to him so he manages to sit still. 

“Half..” Hinata repeats. Questions fill his mind at the possibilities, “Half-spirit?! What’s the other half?” 

“Human, obviously.” Tobio answers, “What else?” 

“I don’t know… cat?” Hinata jokes, ignoring looks Tobio sends his way. 

“Yatagarasu-san told me that when I was a baby, my mother left me in the forest. When Yatagarasu-san found me, I couldn’t stop crying and he said it looked like I was about to die…” Tobio reveals. Hinata’s eyes widen and the half-spirit continues, “But he saved me by putting a spell on me, but it made me a half-spirit. Him and a few spirits took care of me for a few years in that cabin, and they still visit me time to time.

“The spirit world taught me how to make food and how to take care of myself. They’re really nice spirits, but most of them are afraid of humans,” he pauses, glancing at Hinata whose full attention was on him, “I don’t know what would exactly happen if I touched a human, but they tell me its too dangerous to try.” 

Hinata has always known that no matter what, Tobio has the most respect for the forest spirits. Whenever he thinks he catches a glimpse of them, he gets the general idea that they don’t want to be near him. But the reality of why they stay away from humans hits the hammer on the nail; Hinata would never want to hurt the forest’s life, nonetheless the very beings that raised Tobio. 

His mind reminds him of the previous summer to the first time he saw Tobio without his mask.

_“Its okay if you don’t want to say-”_

_“No, it’s fine.” Tobio shrugs. He glances up at Hinata, his expression completely still, “ **I look more like a spirit with my mask on, that’s why I wear it.** ” _

“We’re best friends, Tobio.” Hinata’s voice cracks as he finally speaks up, Tobio turns to him again in interest, “Whether you like it or not… you’re my best friend.” 

“What do you mean-” 

“It means that I respect all of your bondrees- bounda-rees,” Hinata blinks, the pronunciation of the word suddenly flying over his head and Tobio looks just as confused. 

“It means I won’t do anything I shouldn’t for you, because you mean a lot to me whether you like it or not!” After proclaiming his statement, he turns to Tobio and grins. A cool, late summer breeze curls through the air and softly dances through their hair, humming of lifelong-promises. 

Tobio’s cheeks burn pink at the sudden outburst, bewildered. “Yeah, I know that stupid. You don’t need to tell the whole world!”

Hinata laughs freely as he takes off running. The sun had finally set and the faint half-moon peaked through wispy clouds and the breeze begins to pick up by the time he reaches the front gate. 

“You hear that world! Tobi is my best friend forever! Forever!” 

Tobio catches up with him, his usual exasperated glare on his face, but Hinata knows by now that he feels the same way. When Hinata turns to beam at the spirit, Tobio mirrors the warm smile. Hinata’s heart pounds against his chest. 

He never wants to let his best friend go.

“Your receives suck!” Tobio yells out after the volleyball he just served bounces off Hinata’s arms and launches into his face. 

“ _You_ suck!” Hinata sneers as he holds his cheek, grabbing for the fallen volleyball. Tobio walks over and peeks at the reddening cheek, concern flickering over his face, but quickly returning to normal after seeing Hinata is fine. 

Today was the the final day of Hinata’s stay in Takamori-machi for the summer and they were spending it in front of their small volleyball court in front of Tobio’s cabin, tossing a volleyball back and forth over the net. The late afternoon sun hung high in the sky, but its rays were soft today, so Tobio abandoned his mask to properly feel the cool weather. It’s perfect for a calm few rounds of receiving practice.

Except that there was nothing calm about Tobio and Hinata. 

Tobio rolls his eyes and places a hand on his hip, “Your comebacks suck more.” Hinata gasps, shocked at how Tobio could insult his perfect humor!

“You’re so mean Tobio!” Hinata exclaims, “Your- your…” Tobio raises his eyebrow, waiting. 

“My what?” 

“Your hair sucks!” Hinata’s ears were burning red from frustration, saying the first thing that popped in his mind.

“ _My_ hair sucks?” Tobio’s eyes widen in shock, “Mine? When you look like a tangerine with yours?” 

“How do I look like a tangerine?! You can’t call everything orange a tangerine-” Hinata watches in confusion as Tobio reaches down into the grass to grab at a fallen leaf. “Hey what are you doing-” Hinata flinches when Tobio reaches above him and drops the leaf onto the very top of his unruly head of hair. When the half-spirit leans back, careful to not touch Hinata in the process, he gives Hinata a satisfied smirk.

“Tangerine.” Tobio states smugly, but his smirk quickly morphs into a shocked expression when Hinata reaches down to the grass and drops it onto the top of Tobio’s smooth raven hair. 

“Blueberry.” Hinata bursts out laughing at the sight. 

Tobio is trying to glare at the top of his head, as if looking for the leaf. He gives up and looks back at Hinata.

“My hair isn’t even blue dumbass.” 

“It looks like it is when its sunny!” Hinata giggles as he pockets the leaf from his head. 

Hinata steps back and Tobio immediately understands the message, returning to his spot on the court. They play volleyball until the sun is completely below the western horizon. 

“You can keep it.” Hinata pushes the volleyball towards Tobio who carefully grasps the leather and steps back from him. 

“Keep it? Like it’s mine now?” Tobio asks, shocked at the sudden statement. 

The duo is standing in front of Takamori-machi’s gates like they would every evening, though lately they had been pushing for more and more minutes together. Their voices were hushed to a whisper (though Hinata’s voice could barely be considered one) given the stillness of the village.

“Yeah, its fine! I have more at home.” Hinata lies, his hand reaching for the back of his neck, “And I can buy more at the sports center near my house anyway.” 

Tobio raises his eyebrows, but nods.

“Oh, alright,” Tobio mumbles under his breath, his eyes wandering to the dirt beneath them, “I don’t really have anything for you though.” Hinata’s eyes widen as the sudden statement.

“Why would you need to give me a present?” Hinata asks, genuinely confused.

“Because you gave me one. Isn’t that how it works?”

“No, I gave it to you because you’re my best friend!” Hinata responds, a soft smile breaking free as he gazes down at Tobio whose gears were very clearly turning in his head.

“Oh…” he glances down at the volleyball in his hands before glancing back at Hinata, “So this is what best friends do? They do nice things for each other even though they don’t have to?” 

Hinata flushes at Tobio’s words, taken back, “Hey- what do you mean nice-” he stammers, “I’m doing this because I want to!” With a dramatic flourish, Hinata turns his head to the side and hopes the other doesn’t seen his warm face. “You’ll probably be bored without me anyway, so you can have the volleyball.” 

Tobio smiles softly to himself as he gazes at the volleyball before whispering quietly, “Thanks, Shou.”

The corner of Hinata’s mouth tilts up, the reddening of his cheeks yet to calm down, “No problem, Tobi.”

✧

Hinata enters Yukigaoka’s doors with hopes uplifting his shoulders and a vision of finding a team to train with. It is the dawn of a new school year, meaning Spring has begun. At his local middle school, Hinata wants to join the volleyball club and soon enough, Hinata will meet an official setter. 

So when Hinata runs his eyes over the club list pinned on the announcements board, his blood runs cold. 

There is no setter. In fact, there isn’t a boy’s volleyball club at all to begin with. Hinata’s face fixes into a frown as he confirms the news from the teachers’ office. 

But Hinata knows that he wants to spike, he wants team members who share the same interest as him. So when he exits the office with determination in his steps, he has a new goal in mind: to get strong enough for a team. 

“Izumin, toss for me!” Hinata holds out his volleyball with both hands, eyes sincere, but strong. His small classmate wavers under the powerful gaze, but points to the gym in the distance with his thumb.

“I have basketball practice in twenty minutes-” 

“Just five minutes!” 

Hinata made it routine to ask his few willing classmates to toss for him. He insists it really wasn’t that hard! All they would need to do is toss the ball his way and he would practice spiking it down. After practicing against the back of the girls volleyball team’s gym against the wall, Hinata would pester a few of the girls to set for him for just a few minutes and they would eagerly help, unable to say no to Hinata’s sparkling eyes. When a familiar ache begins to settle into his body, he heads home on his bicycle, determined to follow his routine until he finally finds a team.

✧ 

“This is stupid.” 

“Just accept it, you can’t be in denial forever.” 

“Literally just a year passed, it doesn’t make sense!” Hinata jumps on his toes and steps closer to Tobio, arms crossed over his chest. 

Even though he has his yokai mask on, Hinata somehow knows Tobio is smirking down at Hinata, smug over the new six centimeter height difference between the pair. Hinata glares at the now taller and does not back down over some height. If he’s beaten Tobio at anything over the last year, it has to be in volleyball, right? 

Its difficult to say when they’re playing on their court. After removing his mask, they immediately return to their familiar movements, except changes are apparent. The ball still falls through their arms after every few tosses and receives, but when the duo both runs to the ball much quicker, more sure, it is clear to Hinata that Tobio has also practiced in their time apart. When they decide to play on the same side of the court, Hinata asks Tobio to set for him.

“Your tosses are so…” Hinata gasps for air as he grabs for his water bottle and chugs the liquid down, “ _Scary_. They’re scary.” 

“Is that bad?” Tobio responds, his eyebrow raised. Hinata shakes his head no and turns to face the half-spirit after wiping his mouth clean, but almost flinches when it dawns to him just how much taller Tobio has grown. _This is just unfair_ , Hinata grumbles in his head. 

“No it’s not bad!” Hinata states, but places a finger to his chin thoughtfully, “They’re just really…”

“Really what?” 

“Hold on I can’t remember the word!” Hinata huffs a breath, his brain searching for what may possible describe Tobio’s frighteningly exact toss that somehow appears at his hands right when he needs it. 

Tobio stands still, curiosity burning on his face, but patient. 

“Precise!” Hinata smiles in delight, “Yeah, they’re really precise. Your tosses just appear out of nowhere and its like... _boom!_ ” He points to the center of the palm of his hand and mimics spiking down a volleyball. “How did you learn how to do that!?” The half-spirit shrugs, but when Hinata glances closer he notices that the other’s neck is burning pink in embarrassment. 

“I mainly just practice by myself, so I practiced serves and tosses,” Tobio mumbles out. Hinata finds himself holding back a smile at how the taller has been flattered. “I like tosses a little more though, so I mainly practiced those.”

“Well I won’t lose to you, Tobio!” Hinata exclaims, a determined grin on his face, “I’ll get better at tossing than you this summer, just watch!” 

Tobio mirrors the smile, his eyebrows slightly furrow as they always do in his own thoughtful way. Tobio sees him as an equal, almost like a rival. Hinata raises his chin, attempting to see the other on a parallel level. Unspoken promises pass between them; Hinata is determined to see them through.

✧ 

Over the next three summers, Hinata invites Tobio over to his grandfather’s house more often. They mainly hang out on the front porch, occasionally travelling to the kitchen to eat food or learn a new recipe courtesy of Hinata’s grandfather. They rarely sit in Hinata’s room to relax, but when they first do, Hinata is in his third year of middle school. 

Hinata sits on the top of his bed, amused at Tobio’s curiosity as he rummages through the photo frames and the polaroid camera sitting on top of Hinata’s desk. He watches as Tobio hunches over a specific photo. His hair has grown longer, his bangs covering his forehead and he has definitely shot up a couple of centimeters as well. Even though Tobio’s body has changed so much over the past few years, Hinata still finds his heart growing soft over watching the concentrated, familiar expression on Tobio’s face. 

“You’ve barely grown,” Tobio states after pointing to a photo of Hinata and his grandfather the summer before the pair met. Hinata grabs for the pillow beside him and tosses it towards the half-spirit. 

“I totally have! I’ve grown a whole six centimeters since we first met, for your information.” 

“Its funny you have this sitting in the back of your head honestly,” Tobio quips. Before Hinata could respond, Tobio points to another photo. “Is this your sibling?” 

Automatically knowing which picture the half-spirit is pointing to, Hinata nods and makes his way over to Tobio and takes the photo in his hand. 

“This is Natsu! She’s my little sister and she’s really annoying,” Hinata huffs out as he glares at the photo of Natsu and himself running through their backyard back home, fear written over Natsu’s pudgy childish face as Hinata attempts to reach out for the younger with both his hands.

“But she’s kind of cute I guess,” Hinata finishes as he remembers the memory, his eyes growing soft. When he turns his head to Tobio, he’s staring at Hinata with an unreadable expression. 

“What?” Hinata asks, slightly startled. 

“Oh uh,” Tobio breaks out of his trance, “How old is she?” 

“She’s six years younger than me, so only nine years old.” 

“That’s really young,” Tobio comments.

Hinata laughs as he places the photo back on the table and turns to face the taller, “True, but you know you were only ten years old when we met, right?” 

“Four years already?” Tobio’s eyes widen.

Hinata giggles, “Yeah!” He reaches for the blue polaroid camera his grandfather had gifted him when he first arrived to Takamori-machi that summer and holds it up to his eyes, “Smile, Tobio!” 

Hinata snaps a photo before the half-spirit may protest and smiles in delight over the darkened piece of paper sliding out of the camera. 

“What did you do?” Tobio asks curiously as he observes the piece of paper that was now lightening in color, making out unrecognizable shapes. 

“I took a photo of you!” Hinata grins, “Now I have a photo to remember for our fifth summer together. Just wait for the photo to develop though, and you’ll see how cool it is!”

“I wasn’t ready though,” Tobio mumbles as he holds the paper close to his face. Hinata grabs for the photo and proudly places it on the table to develop.

A smug smile graces his lips, teasing, “Good, now I have something embarrassing of you.” 

“If I could touch you, I’d have hit you in the face by now,” Tobio glares back with as much menace apparent on Hinata’s face. Hinata’s eyes widen in shock at the statement.

“Well its the same for me!” Hinata sputters out, hands on his waist as a method of intimidation. 

“Sure, you can try after you can reach my head.” 

“Oh, shut up Tobio!” Hinata mimics throwing his camera at the taller, his face flushed in embarrassment. 

After running around Hinata’s room for a few moments, neither of them touching yet shouting insults and quips at each other, Hinata falls back onto his bed. After catching his breath, he glances up to see Tobio hunched over with his hands on his knees, breathing deeply. 

Hinata reaches for the two pillows placed on the front of his bed and places it beside his body, leaving room on the rest of the bed for another body. 

“You can lie down if you want.”

Tobio carefully presses his body down to the mattress, making a point to stay a distance away from the pillows bordering them, and faces the ceiling with Hinata. Hinata turns his head slightly to glance at Tobio, his eyes shut as small beads of sweat runs down the side of his forehead. His hair sticks to the back of his body, yet his skin almost glows under the early evening sunlight peaking through his windows. As gross as the sight is, Hinata still keeps a mental picture of the other, exhausted, yet somehow still dazzling.

“Tobi?” Tobio hums in response.

“Remember that volleyball tournament I told you about last summer?” Hinata asks quietly.

“The one with a ton of teams coming together in your town?” 

“Yeah,” Hinata answers, but turns his gaze to the side away from Tobio, “I got six players to play with me, but…” 

“You didn’t win?” the Tobio finishes for him. 

Hinata nods, one of his arms making its way to reach his forehead, “We didn’t even make it past the first round.” 

The memory of the tournament brings a pang of pain to Hinata’s chest. Although Hinata has practiced for years and years and had finally gathered enough people to participate in the regional middle school tournament, their lack of experience with working together and the absence of proper coaching had quickly became apparent.

Hinata’s first official tournament had quickly turned to be his last the moment the ball drops to the the gym floor, the sound of rubber against wood echoing through Hinata’s heightened, but exhausted senses. 

He notices Tobio turning his head to face him and mimics the movement. Hinata is almost taken back by the hardened look on the half-spirit, but quickly recognizes it as Tobio’s purposeful face. 

“So there's still more you need to work on?” Tobio finally asks. Hinata gulps as he pushes the familiar memory to the back of his mind. 

“So, so much.” He lowers his arm to take a better look at Tobio as the he sits up and turn to look at Hinata. Tobio nods, understanding and firm. 

“Then lets go practice.”

✧

“My name is Hinata Shouyou and I’m a first year!” Hinata exclaims before bowing to three older upperclassmen. Hinata feels a heavy stare on his head, so when he moves up and turns his head to face the one second year and third years of the Karasuno Volleyball Club, he feels his face drain from color at the bald-headed, glooming second-year glowering at him with a menacing face. When one of the third years rolls his eyes and then hits the scary second-year’s head, Hinata flinches and backs up to the small line-up of the other two first years joining the team. 

“Ignore them,” A deep, warm voice calls his attention. Hinata turns to the captain of the volleyball club, his captivating aura immediately alerting Hinata’s senses. “Welcome to the Karasuno Volleyball Club! I’m Daichi, your captain.” 

“Sugawara! I’m the vice-captain,” the other third year student chirps. One of his hands grips the top of the bald second year’s head, yet his smile manages to be dazzling, calming Hinata’s flying nerves. Sugawara lets go of the second year and the latter immediately stands straight up in confidence. 

“I’m Tanaka-senpai! You three better shape up good and fast, because we’re going to nationals, and we’re winning.” he finishes with a serious grin. The third years quickly glance at each other, momentarily shocked by the sudden statement, but quickly mirrors Tanaka’s grin.

When Hinata takes note of the other first years beside him (one standing with a bored expression, yet still concentrated, and the other serious, but clearly enthusiastic) he finds his shoulders loosening in tension and finds himself grinning, excitement automatically replacing his tingling nerves of finding a team that is willing to take him on as a team member. 

Hinata receives the volleyball with ease, but the ball flies to the side of the courtyard, _definitely_ not to Sugawara who is waiting patiently for him to return the ball. When Hinata grabs the volleyball, frustration continues to pent up within his body and he tosses the volleyball a little too roughly towards the third year. 

“Ouch,” Sugawara whispers before shaking his hand lightly. Hinata’s eyes widen, but before he can issue an apology, the third year shakes his head. “It’s fine, Hinata. But why the extra force today?” 

Hinata’s ears burn from embarrassment, but he takes in the genuine gaze Sugawara sends his way and sighs. “I still have so much to learn before I can catch up with everyone else. I feel so... _behind_.” He glances up at the third year after a small moment of silence, but is slightly taken back when he approaches Hinata and places a hand on his shoulder. 

“You know, it’s almost relieving to see you say that,” Hinata’s eyes widen, _what’s that supposed to mean?_

“I mean not that I want you to feel that way!” Sugawara explains quickly, “But before I say anything else, I’ll say this,” he pauses before gazing into Hinata’s eyes, the sincerity radiating off of him. 

“You have the most intense love for volleyball that I have ever seen coming from another person. I’m not sure _why_ that is, but it may also just be your personality, but I doubt that coming from you, someone who is the most willing to take on extra practice late into the night, begs coaches from powerhouse schools for extra practice games, and convinces all our players to keep playing won’t go far.” 

“Go… go far?” Hinata croaks, emotion swelling in his chest. Sugawara’s words strikes a chord within him. He wasn’t even aware that’s how he appears to others.

“I’m not exactly sure how far is _far_ , but that’s not up to me and you’ll know when the time comes,” Sugawara smiles. He lifts his hand from Hinata’s shoulder and ruffles his hair, the feeling in Hinata’s chest lightens. 

“It’s okay to feel this way, Hinata. I mean, the only reason I said it’s relieving is because it reminds me that you have these doubts too, you know? Either way, you’re still an important part of this team.” Sugawara sighs, but his smile still apparent, “Don’t tell anyone else, but I think you’ve improved the most this month than anyone else on this team.”

“Me?” Hinata asks, a small smile appearing.

“Yeah, you!” Sugawara laughs, smacking his hand on Hinata’s back, “I know you already practice so much, but do you have some secret weapon up you sleeve? I’ve never seen someone’s spikes go down so fast! Not that I’m complaining, the look on Nekoma’s face during that practice match is something I can never forget.” 

Hinata laughs, his mind turning to the familiar memory of his best friend in the forests of Takamori-machi “No, not a secret weapon. Just… a friend!”

“A friend?” Sugawara inquires, curiosity settling in his face “Are they a setter, by any chance?” 

“Woah, how did you know?!” Hinata gasps, “I mean, he doesn’t play on a team or anything, but I make him set for me all the time and he’s really good at it now!” 

“You… _make_ him set for you?” 

“I mean it’s not that he doesn’t want to!” Hinata quickly explains, “I visit him every summer and we just play a lot of volleyball together. He really likes volleyball now, but he’s really smart when it comes to it so he’s like a rival to me.” 

Sugawara smiles softly at Hinata’s rambling, glancing down at the volleyball in hand and holds it between both, “You know, this is starting to explain a lot.” Hinata raises an eyebrow. “Sometimes when I set for you, it looks like your mind is elsewhere, somewhere not on the court.”

“I-is that true?!” Hinata almost shouts, his cheeks burning pink. He wasn’t aware other people noticed those small moments after he hits Sugawara’s sets, but now that he thinks about it, it would make sense the setter himself has noticed. 

“I dont- I don’t mean it in a bad way I just-” Sugawara bursts out laughing, Hinata’s cheeks are on fire. 

“Don’t worry about it! I know you don’t. It’s just something I’ve noticed and it’s always _after_ you score a point, too.” 

Sugawara gives Hinata a knowing look, one Hinata finds difficult to decipher. Hinata glances away, forcing his thoughts to the back of his mind, refusing to touch that mess. 

“I’m not that summer rival of yours, but let’s beat Seijoh and Shiratorizawa together, yeah? We’re a pretty awesome duo too, if I do say so myself.” Hinata grins in complete agreement, eager for more tosses, and eager for what his future holds with Karasuno and beyond. 

✧

“ _Nii-chan_ , we just got here, how are you going outside already?” Hinata turns his head to face his younger sister, his hand already on the door handle to find Tobio. 

“We got here a whole hour ago!” Hinata exclaims, “And I do this every summer anyways, right grandpa?” 

“He does.” His grandfather affirms down the hallway, rummaging through a closet to pull out extra blankets for Natsu. This is her first summer staying in Takamori-machi with Hinata, so she has yet to know about Hinata’s best friend.

Hinata turns to his sister and sticks his tongue out at her, “We’re not staying that long, so I should make use of all my time.”

“Okay,” Natsu pouts, “But come back soon! I want to try grandpa’s dinner with you.” 

After assuring his sister that he won’t be out too long, Hinata rushes out into the late afternoon daylight and jogs down the familiar path towards the entrance of the village. A grin blooms across his face when he notices the masked figure standing with his arms crossed over his chest

“Tobio!” Hinata shouts, excitement immediately surges through his actions. Tobio unfolds his arms and waves to Hinata. When Hinata finally reaches him, he quickly attempts to catch his breath. He didn’t realize how fast he started to run until now. 

“You didn’t have to run, idiot.” 

“I was excited! Is that so bad- _cat!_ ” Tobio turns his head to where Hinata was pointing towards the ground, noticing a small, orange tabby wrapping her tail around Tobio’s leg. 

“Oh, right.” Tobio reaches down and holds the tabby gently in his arms, “This is Asuka, my cat.” Hinata watches as the tabby cat nuzzles her head against Tobio’s chest, Tobio holds the cat even closer with a soft gaze in his eyes that drives Hinata’s heart to his throat. 

Hinata gulps, the sudden, but soft situation has definitely caught him off guard. Since when did Tobio have a cat? 

“I think this is the cat that I found a few years ago,” Tobio mumbles as he stares down at Asuka, careful to not wake her up. 

“The one who was taken by her mother?” Tobio nods.

“Uwah, I’m so glad you found her!” Hinata’s heart feels like bursting from the softness of the scene in front of him, happiness immediately filling him to the brim. “Can I…?” 

Tobio delicately places Asuka on the ground for Hinata to pick up. When she’s in his arms, Hinata immediately takes a liking to her soft fur against his arms and takes note of the thin piece of cloth, decorated with a daisy at the front, underneath Asuka’s small head. 

When she finally wakes up, her gold eyes meets Hinata’s brown before leaping from his arms and towards Tobio. 

The pair and the cat walk towards the forest, aimlessly wandering until they reach a clear patch of grass under a fairly large tree providing shade from the burning summer rays. Hinata lifts his legs to his chest after sitting down, placing his arms on top of them. Tobio sits criss-crossed beside him, Asuka taking refuge in Tobio’s lap as he removes his yokai mask to take a deep breath of fresh air.

“I’m only staying for a week this time.” Tobio turns to face Hinata, eyes wide. 

“What are you going to do after you leave?” 

Hinata takes a breath and stares forward with intent, “My team is going to a volleyball camp in Tokyo next week, we need to get stronger so we can go to the Spring nationals.” 

“That makes sense. You better get better then.” Tobio responds simply. Hinata turns to him, curious of the half-spirit’s expression to only giggle. 

“What?” Tobio asks, startled. 

“Nothing! You’re just…” Hinata pauses to think, “You’re so Tobio, I guess.” 

Hinata laughs as he throws his body against the grass underneath him. He shuts his eyes, taking in the small beams of sunlight peaking through the leaves hanging out from the branches above him. 

“Who else would I be?” Tobio asks, turning his body to face Hinata. Asuka hops out of his lap, deciding that this was the moment to scratch at the tree. 

“No one else.” Hinata responds, “No one else can be as blunt, but still as genuine as you, Tobi.” 

Hinata’s eyes flutter open when he feels soft fur pressed against his stomach. Asuka settles herself comfortably on top of Hinata and Hinata finds himself smiling at the tabby, his hand reaching out to pet her soft fur. 

When Hinata turns to glance at Tobio, his eyes are already focused on him. Tobio hasn’t grown too much since last summer, but his cheeks were beginning to lose its baby fat and his smooth hair frames his forehead much more naturally. A chilly breeze blows past the pair, cooling them down from the sun’s rays. Hinata realizes that his summers, _this moment,_ was worth waiting a year more. 

“This is weird.” 

“You’re the only one being weird about it.” Hinata rolls his eyes as Natsu grins up at the tallest figure in the yard. On their final day in Takamori-machi, Natsu and Hinata were returning from the market early after sunrise, but stopped in their tracks when they encountered a masked Tobio sitting at the front steps of Hinata’s grandfather’s house. 

“You’re allowed to come in, you know?” Hinata tells the half-spirit, “Grandpa loves you.” 

Natsu stares between the pair, eyes wide with curiosity. Before Tobio could respond, she jumps in excitement.

“Is this the Tobio nii-san you keep talking about?!” Natsu exclaims, jumping towards Tobio who hesitantly inches back. Hinata grabs Natsu’s wrist, holding her back before she may move any closer. 

“I don’t talk about him that much,” Hinata whispers sharply, “And don’t touch him!” 

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Natsu wags a hand at him, “Grandpa already told me.” 

“You guys know I’m right here, right?” Tobio speaks up. The pair turn to him. 

“Hard to forget when you’re constantly giving me that glare of yours, Tobio. I can always feel it through that mask.” Hinata says teasingly. “C’mon let me get my volleyball and we can practice.”

After Tobio picks up the abandoned back of groceries on the ground and onto the kitchen counter, Hinata is on the second step of the stairs to grab his volleyball upstairs before Natsu interjects.

“Nii-chan! There’s a magic cat here!”

By the time the pair reaches the front porch, they see Natsu petting Asuka, Natsu barely holding in her excitement as the cat wanders the garden, her trail leaving behind budding daisies. Hinata grins as he steps down to the garden Natsu was sitting in and feels his heart warm at the sight of his sister enjoying the cat’s company. 

Tobio stares at her from behind Hinata and turns to sit down besides Hinata’s sister.

“Did you know about this?” Hinata asks as Asuka automatically makes herself comfortable beside Tobio. Daisies were forming all around the garden, slowly blooming white, but definitely much faster than a normal daisy would be. Tobio nods, affirming Hinata’s question. 

“I’ve never seen her make so much though.” Tobio adds. Hinata sits back, taking in the garden of daisies. When he reaches out to touch the nearest one, his mouth opens in awe at the golden sparkles bouncing off the center of the flower. 

Before Hinata asks another question, he catches his sister plucking a few from the ground from the corner of his eye, automatically recognizing her intentions.

“Natsu, no way.” 

“But there’s so many! It’ll be perfect.” Natsu exclaims as she sits down in front of the pair with an armful of daisies. 

“What do you mean?” Tobio asks as he reaches out for a daisy to hold between his fingers, the magic dust flickering around his hands. 

“You can make crowns out of these,” Natsu grins brightly, similar to Hinata’s smile. Tobio is slightly taken back, but quickly takes in the information. 

“She makes them all the time back in Miyagi, but I have no idea how she does it,” Hinata explains as he stares in confusion at his sister’s quick hand movements. Tobio squints, attempting to take in the steps, but decides to just turn to her face instead. Hinata almost laughs from his expression, but stops when Tobio raises an eyebrow at his sister.

“Can you teach us?” 

Hinata was a long way from becoming the flower expert his sister was, but he was considerably proud of his flower crown. The daisies were braided a little messily, but nonetheless, everything looked pretty put together. 

When Hinata turns to Tobio, he’s surprised to say he isn’t the slightest bit shocked to see Tobio’s flower crown already long completed before his, looking perfectly put together. He was attempting to place the crown around Asuka’s neck, but it was too large. Natsu was busying herself with making a smaller crown for the cat.

“Tobio, put this on you!” Hinata holds out his crown from the top.

“I already have my own.” 

“Yeah but… I made this for you!” Hinata responds. It wasn’t a lie, he wouldn’t admit it, but Hinata kept imagining Tobio wearing the crown as he braided the stems together, curious over how the half-spirit would look. Tobio takes the crown from the bottom end and carefully places in on top of his head. 

Tobio stares up, as if he could see how the crown looked from there, “How do I look?” 

Hinata opens his eyes after many failed attempts of drifting off to sleep. The darkness of the room overtaking his vision, but if he just slightly turns his body, he can see the very familiar figure that is plaguing his mind on the futon beside his bed.

After accidentally spending the entire day with Natsu and Hinata, neither of them noticed the setting sun until it was completely out of vision. With heavy breaths from serve and receive practicing, Hinata tells Tobio that he could stay over at his grandfather’s house if he wanted to. After thinking about whether or not he can risk getting caught by Yatagarasu, Tobio shrugs and enters Hinata’s room with him.

Hinata is honestly torturing himself.

Everytime he shuts his eyes, the image of the half-spirit placing Hinata’s daisy crown on his own head appears. The mid morning sun peaking behind him, glowing on Tobio’s features. Hinata found himself keeping a mental image of the moment and now, the image won’t leave his mind. He turns to face the spirit, his bed overlooking the futon on the floor. 

Tobio’s eyes were shut, peaceful with sleep and his body was facing Hinata’s bed, while Asuka made herself comfortable beside Tobio’s borrowed pillow.

Hinata knows spirits rarely sleeps, so he wonders if its the same with half-spirits. It would make sense they sleep a little more often, after all, Tobio _is_ part human. 

Hinata also wonders how Tobio’s constantly glowing skin would feel if he reached out, but quickly pushes the thought to the back of his mind. He _knows_ that’s the worst thing he could do to the half-spirit, so why is he thinking of Tobio like that? 

He sighs, allowing for the pressing thoughts plaguing his mind from the last few years to rise to the surface. 

Even when Hinata was miles away in Miyagi, the smallest things would remind him of the half-spirit: the onigiri that his mom packs for him for school, the victorious, exploding feeling that bursts through his lungs when he spikes down a volleyball, even the insects flying overhead on his bike ride to school. Whether it was summer or not, visiting Tobio again was always something Hinata kept in his mind. 

Hinata takes in Tobio’s sleeping form again, his dark hair falling to the side as drool slightly slips out of his mouth. He occasionally lets out a loud snore, but Hinata’s thoughts are louder tonight.

 _‘This isn’t how you feel for a best friend, is it?’_ Hinata realizes with a shaky breath. He gazes at the half-spirit, his presence calming the dancing fireflies in Hinata’s stomach and pounding heart. 

_‘No, I don’t think it is.’_

✧

Hinata moves his scarf to cover his nose, the cold winter snow falling fast around him as he decides to walk to school today instead of bike. He doesn’t want to risk an injury when Nationals are only a few days away. 

Winter has quickly made itself comfortable in Miyagi, snowing non-stop for the last few days. Schools were closed for the holidays, but Hinata still has to practice. The skills he’d picked up at the Miyagi Boys Training Camp were far from honed, he was only a ball boy. But still, Hinata is determined to make the best use of the skills he’s picked up on. 

Hinata rubs his gloved hands together to gather warmth before slightly picking up his pace. He slips between people and makes his way to a clear part of the road. 

As he waits for the stoplight to turn green, he stares up at the flurries of snow falling ungracefully onto Hinata’s covered nose. He places his hand out, catching a few snowflakes, but watches in disappointment as they melt into the the glove.

 _‘It disappears right when I touch it…_ ’ Hinata thinks sadly.

 _‘I hope Tobio’s warm right now_ ,’ He isn’t sure if its snowing in Takamori-machi, but it’s winter in Japan right now, so its bound to be freezing there, too. He begins to jog as the street light turns green and Hinata makes his way across the street. 

Would Tobio carry around mittens and a coat? The spirits have probably recognized that he needs to be kept warm too, right?

“Hinata-kun, watch out!” Hinata stops in his tracks at the familiar voice. He turns his head to see the first year manager, Yachi Hitoka, making her way towards him and Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, the other two first years on the team, trailing behind her. When Hinata stares down at the icy ground he is standing on, he quickly steadies himself to not fall. 

Yamaguchi carefully makes his way towards Hinata and catches his shoulder, securing Hinata’s balance. 

“Don’t get so distracted while you’re walking down the street,” Tsukishima states passively. Hinata turns to him and resists the urge to throw the taller a glare, but decides against it when he almost slips on the hard ice.

✧

“Are you and Tobio nii-san dating?” Hinata whips his head towards his sister, the heavy rumbling of the train serving as background noise to his quickened thoughts. 

“No!” Hinata exclaims a little louder than necessary as his cheeks heat up. He hushes his voice as nearby passengers turn to face the siblings, “No, he’s my rival, he’s a friend. That’s all.” He gives his sister a smile. ‘ _That’s all’_ , he repeats in his head for assurance.

Natsu’s mouth makes an o-shape, but she glances at Hinata, unsure. 

“But dad keeps a photo of mom in her wallet, and you have that photo of Tobio in yours.” 

Hinata turns to the open wallet in his hands that he was staring at before Natsu interrupted his thought process. Although he’s had the camera for three years, he’s only taken about a dozen photos, and only one of them is of his best friend. Hinata quickly glances at the photo he took of Tobio two years ago, his eyes wide in confusion and his signature scruched up eyebrows immediately catches Hinata’s attention. He’s grown since then for sure, but not considerably. Hinata wonders if Tobio has somehow gotten taller over their year apart, if his hair still frames his face in the same, adorable way.

“Nii-chan?” Natsu asks, once again interjecting through Hinata’s thoughts. Hinata turns away from the wallet and towards his eleven year old sister, a soft smile drawn on his lips. 

“We’re not dating… I don’t think we even can,” Hinata vaguely explains as he tucks the wallet into his pocket, “But he means a lot to me, so I want to see him as much as I can.” 

Hinata clumsily grabs onto the highest tree branch his hands may reach and pushes himself up. After settling himself on the highest branch his body wants to reach, he waits. 

He knows Tobio’s morning routine well enough by now to know that the half-spirit was walking around the forest now with Asuka. Yesterday, Hinata asked Tobio why he forces a poor little cat to watch across the forest with him and Tobio insisted she needs exercise and that magical cats grow more powerful that way. 

When Hinata hears the cracking of twigs below and the view of blooming daisies from a distance, he almost yells out from instinct, but quickly remembers to stay quiet. 

Hinata turns around and wraps his legs around the thick tree branch. He lets his upper body fall behind and hangs by the tree branch upside down. 

“Shouyou?-” 

“Tobio!” Hinata bellows, Asuka jumping her in her steps before noticing Hinata. She quickly makes her way towards the bottom of the trunk and waits for him to step down. 

“You’re going to hurt yourself from up there,” Tobio states, staring up at Hinata with amusement. Hinata rolls his eyes at the curious dark eyes staring at him through the yokai mask. He feels completely fine in his upside down state!

“I will not, I am completely capable of sitting on a tree, Tobi,” Hinata tells the half-spirit, but barely hears the loud crack ripping through the air. When Hinata glances at the edge of the branch holding onto the long tree trunk, it’d already too late. Hinata whips his head back, noticing Tobio already running towards his direction.

“Tobi, no!” 

He lands roughly in the bushes beneath the tree, branches and leafs catching in his hair and clothes. There’s a bruise on his leg, but he can take care of that at Tobio’s cabin. 

“You… I told you.” Tobio heavily breathes out with his eyes wide open. Hinata slowly steps out of the bushes, careful to not worsen the bruise on his leg. The bruise in painful, but the memory of Tobio running towards him, his arms out as if he was going to catch Hinata struck a different type of ache within him.

“Sorry, Shouyou.” Tobio apologizes softly, “Are you okay?”

Hinata slips out of the bushes, careful to avoid adding pain to his bruise, but the majority of his attention is focused on keeping his distance from the half-spirit. Asuke had run away from the commotion, but to was easy to see where she ran off to by the direction her daisies pointed to. 

Hinata manages to crawl out of the bush and sits down on the grass, holding his bruised knee to his chest as he yanks a twig from his hair.

“Thank goodness,” Hinata breathes out. Tobio turns his masked face to Hinata’s bruises, his body mirroring worry.

“Tobio, you can’t touch me,” Hinata’s voice slightly cracks, but his gaze on Tobio stays strong.

“No matter what, you can’t touch me, okay?” 

Hinata takes a long drink from his water bottle and lets the cool water drench his dry throat. Tobio stands a few meters away, drinking water from his own canteen, sweat still sticking to his forehead, his mask long abandoned, after their long spiking drill. 

Just like this night, hey usually spend their late hours setting and spiking with only the bright moon to illuminate their faces and the wide, open space letting the luminance of the stars aid them. Sometimes, they took turns for who sets and who spikes, but Hinata has long to come to terms with the fact that Tobio’s setting skills were far superior. Yet, he still begs the half-spirit to throw him a tip or two. It’s fun learning from him, and it’s also fun playing his favorite sport with him. 

“You have tournaments when you get back, right?” Tobio asks as he closes his canteen, making his way towards Hinata. Hinata nods, still catching his breath. 

“Its the Miyagi Spring High Preliminations,” he answers, “We made it to the Spring High last year, so we’re going this year too.” 

“That sounds really fun,” Tobio comments with a ghost of a smile, Hinata turns his head to him, “Go farther this time, okay?” 

Hinata laughs, a smug smile sits on his face. Tobio’s words were so direct, yet he feels the need to analyze them like there was some hidden meaning. 

“Yeah, of course! You don’t need to tell me that. We’re going to win every game.” 

As they clean up their court, Tobio asks Hinata another question. 

“Are you going to do volleyball your whole life?” Tobio asks inquisitively as the pair unties the volleyball net from opposite ends. 

“Yes.” Hinata answers surely, “I can’t imagine doing anything else, honestly. Actually… that reminds me.” 

Hinata suddenly remembers an offer the coach of one of the powerhouse schools in the prefecture has offered him. After untying his side of the volleyball net, he turns to Tobio and walks over. 

“I might be going overseas for beach volleyball training after high school.” Tobio glances down at Hinata, slowly nodding. 

“Where?” 

“Well… I’m still not sure, but I’m hoping Brazil,” Hinata responds. Tobio finally finishes untying his end of the net and rolls it up neatly. 

“How… how long?” 

Hinata places his hand behind his head, unsure. “I don’t exactly know yet, but probably a year or two.” Tobio nods, a thoughtful look Hinata has trouble deciphering. 

“That sounds good for you,” Tobio answers, “You’ll probably get better at setting than me then.” 

Hinata rolls his eyes and almost laughs, but recognizes the recognizes the small shake in Tobio’s voice. The pair makes their way towards Tobio’s cabin and drops off the net. After setting towards the forest, Hinata knows he and Tobio will have to part ways for the night soon enough. 

“Hey, Shouyou?” Hinata hums in response, turning to gaze at Tobio’s moonlight illuminated profile. He really did look dazzling under this light. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever showed you my favorite part of the forest.” 

This must be the most amusing, ironic situation Hinata has found himself in. 

Tobio has already made his way to the top of the large tree he insisted they climb for the “best place in the forest” and somehow managed to not trip over any branches. Hinata, on the other hand, was lucky to be halfway up the tree at this point. 

“Literally just last month you were criticizing me for climbing a dangerous tree, and now you bring me to the top of the biggest tree in the _whole forest?_ ” 

“What? Are you saying you can’t climb a tree?” Tobio bemuses from above. Hinata rolls his eyes as a shot of determination shoots through him. 

By the time he reaches one of the top branches, he almost falls back, but manages to grasp at the branch tighter. 

“This is…” His voice is lodged in his throat as he stares above into the bright, colorful sky. The night sky was lit up with shades of purples and blues with twinkling stars sprinkled throughout the wide expanse. Not a single cloud was seen, and the light was radiating more than ever. 

If Hinata squints, he can almost make up a constellation or two, but he’s never really been good at recognizing those. He lifts himself onto the branch to sit, Tobio sitting on another branch just barely above him. 

“Really pretty, right?” Tobio finishes for him. Hinata nods, the breath taken away from his throat. He turns up to Tobio to see the half-spirit already looking his way. 

The stars reflects in Tobio’s dark eyes, like they held a night sky of their own, and Hinata finds himself unable to look away. 

He leans in, he almost stares down to Tobio’s lips, and he almost shuts his eyes to give in to the begging of his heart, but then he notices Tobio mirroring his movements. Hinata quickly jerks back, his heart pounding in his ears. 

_‘Were we about to…?’_

Hinata shakes the thought out his head and turns his head to the side, attempting to calm down his jumping heartbeat. 

He wouldn’t do that to Tobio. Tobio doesn’t deserve that, no one deserves such a fate. 

“A body like mine is really… _weak_.” Tobio breaks the silence after a pause. He hesitantly turns to Tobio and is almost shocked to see the half-spirit still looking his way, his eyes as analytical and genuine as ever. 

“Its maintained by magic, just touching humans could possibly break the spell protecting me, and I could disappear forever. So… so I understand that one day, you’re going to have to move onto bigger things-”

“I think about you during the fall,” Hinata interjects shortly, his mind racing with Tobio’s implications, “And the Winter, and Summer.” 

Hinata takes in the kind, but serious radiating off of Tobio and attempts to give Tobio the same aura. “You’re not someone I can ever forget about.” He finds himself giggling at the possibility. Forgetting Tobio? It seems ridiculous, honestly. He’d never want that. 

“So you can’t forget about me either, alright?” 

Tobio nods, turning to face the stars, but Hinata continues to watch as the half-spirit opens his mouth to continue. 

“I won’t.” The honesty of his statement pangs against Hinata’s heart. He turns to the glimmering night sky, taking a mental image to save in his mind. This is a day he never wants to forget. 

“Tobio, why’d you bring me here?” Hinata breaks the silence after a few moments.

“I kept forgetting to tell you about it, but I figured this summer is the best I can bring you here,” Tobio explains. “Every century, there’s a Spirit Summer Festival in this forest and on certain days in August, the sky glows like this. It gets brighter the closer it gets to the year of the festival.” 

Hinata nods, taking in the fascinating information, _a spirit festival?_

“So is it this year?” Hinata asks. 

Tobio shakes his head no, “Next year. Do you want to go with me?” 

Hinata’s eyes widen at the question, but he already knows his answer before the question even registers. How could he ever say no to Tobio? 

✧

After making sure the coast is clear, Hinata quietly closes the front door behind him. The clock had struck midnight a few minutes ago and he’s made sure to affirm his grandfather’s snores from his room before dashing out into the front yard and down the path towards the entrance of the village in his pink yukata. 

“You’re here!” Hinata smiles brightly as he takes notice of the masked spirit standing not near the entrance this time, but just a few houses down from Hinata’s grandfather’s. He’s wearing a dark blue yukata, complimenting his dark hair and eyes and appeared soft against his skin. 

“Let’s go together,” Tobio tells him. Hinata nods, he’d want nothing else. 

They quietly make their way towards the forest, ignoring any onlookers and found comfort in their silence. 

At this point in his life, Hinata has become familiar enough with the forest to have a general map of it in the back of his mind. He was no longer the eleven year old kid that had took all the wrong twists and turns and needed the half-spirit to lead him to any absolutely edge of the forest. In fact, he was a third year student in high school with plans to learn how to navigate the beaches of Brazil.

“Is that where it is?” Hinata recognizes unfamiliar lights in the distance, he assumes they’re lanterns. 

Tobio nods, affirming his questions, “There’s a lot of lanterns and light at the festival, so it’s going to be really bright.” 

They trek further down the forest, pushing low langing branches out of the way for each other (it was mainly Tobio, since he is taller), the light becoming more powerful with each step. 

By the time they reach a small pond located not too far away from the festival, the sounds of talking more apparent, Tobio stops. 

The festival is an explosion of reds, oranges, yellows, and every color of the rainbow imaginable. Kids are running about playing games while their parents stare after them in exasperation. There were stands filled with every food imaginable, and foods Hinata wasn’t familiar with at all.

Hinata tucks a lock of hair behind his ear as the pair stops to admire the sight from a distance. When he turns to Tobio, he notices the half-spirit already looking at him like he usually is. The thought brings warmth to his heart. 

“I brought this so we won't separate.” Hinata watches as Tobio pulls out a thin white cloth from his yukata’s sleeve. He holds it from the top, towards Hinata’s direction. 

Hinata carefully holds the cloth and feels Tobio’s gaze on him as he secures it on his wrist. When Hinata turns to face the half-spirit, he feels a smile tug on his lips, unsure of how to translate the rapid beating and swelling of his heart into proper words. But when he takes in the genuine expression on Tobio’s face, he knows the half-spirit already understands. 

“This almost feels like a date, honestly,” Hinata giggles as his fingers ghost over soft cloth. 

“This _is_ a date, dumbass,” Tobio states simply.

_Oh._

Hinata’s face begins to burn, but his heart is in his throat. “Sly bastard,” Hinata mumbles to himself, a small smile gracing his lips as they make their way towards the festival.

After an hour passes, Hinata and Tobio has already visited every food booth possible. Food weighs heavily in their stomach as they challenge each other to different games ranging from throwing rings onto bottles to catching fire breathing flying fish. 

Hinata laughs as Tobio examines the burnt hole towards the bottom of his yukata. “You had this coming, it’s your punishment for being too tall!” 

“You can’t blame everything on my height,” Tobio responds, “I won, anyways! So it was worth it.” Hinata can’t fight with that logic, but he is still grateful Tobio’s skin hadn’t caught fire. 

They turn their attention towards a large commotion towards the center of the festival. A group of masked spirits are holding torches towards a tower of wood and branches, stacked as high as the tallest tree in the forest. Hinata’s eyes glow gold as the tower catches fire and the crowd cheers in celebration for the ritual. 

“Tobio?” Tobio turns to Hinata and Hinata can see the awe in his expression from Tobio’s wide eyes.

“This festival is _so_ cool-” Hinata nearly trips when a pair of kids run in between the pair, barely missing Tobio’s body. 

“Hey, be careful!” Hinata shouts after them, glancing back Tobio to make sure he’s okay. 

The kids turn back to face the pair, but the small, unruly brunet interjects before Hinata may make another comment, “Ew, a couple!” 

As they run off to the crowd, Hinata turns to Tobio, an amused smile on his face. _A couple? Is that what they are?_

Tobio faces Hinata, staring down at his hands, and then glances back towards him. 

“Sometimes, humans sneak into these festivals, not knowing its a spirit festival.” Hinata’s eyes widen, “But its hard to tell who is what since almost everyone is wearing a mask.” 

Hinata stares out into the heavy crows around booths, affirming that almost everyone was indeed wearing a mask. It wasn’t exactly in Tobio’s favor, yet he still wanted to come to the festival. 

“Everyone’s masks and outfits were so cool,” Hinata tells the taller as they leave the festival. After their bellies were full with food from every booth and they confirmed Hinata had the most wins from the games, they decided it was time to head back. 

“They all seemed like spirits! It was so cool, but I’m glad we’re going home now.” Hinata stretches above his head, his yukata’s sleeves falling to his shoulders. 

Tobio hums in agreement, taking a small breath in relief, “The festival is like this every festival, apparently,” Tobio pauses, thoughtful. Hinata turns to face the spirit as they continue walking, approaching the pond where Tobio handed Hinata the cloth connecting their wrists. “Hinata…” 

“Hm?” 

“I also think about you every season, it’s really hard to not,” Hinata’s eyes widen at the sudden confession, remembering their night together last year, “It’s hard waiting for you, but I want to go to you so badly, but I know I have to avoid crowds and wait every summer.” 

Hinata’s hand twitches under his bracelet from Tobio’s words. They were walking side by side, yet still so far from each other. He wants to touch Tobio; he wants to hold him. 

Tobio stops in his tracks and turns to face him. Hinata feels his breath lodge in his throat as Tobio removes his mask and carefully places it on top of Hinata’s face. He completely gives into Tobio’s movements as the latter moves in to plant a kiss on the side of the mask. 

“You can keep it.” Tobio whispers as he moves away. 

The fireflies buzzing in Hinata’s stomach has yet to calm down, yet he somehow manages to nod, accepting Tobio’s gift. 

They continue walking besides the pond, thoughts of what Tobio gifting his _yokai mask_ may mean. 

_‘Is this our last summer together?’_ Hinata wonders with an ache as he observes the firm back in front of him. He speeds up, walking by the spirit’s side. 

Before he’s able to ask the pressing questions plaguing his mind, Hinata hears children's laughter from a distance. He recognizes them as the same kids who called Tobio and him a couple.

The kids are running around, playing a game of some sorts as they run between Hinata and Tobio, but the brunet trips over the dirt and almost falls into the pond. _Almost_. Tobio quickly reaches out and grasps the child’s arms with worry gracing his eyes. 

“Are you okay?” Hinata blurts out as the brunet balances himself. He nods and thanks the pair before rushing off after his friend. 

Hinata watches as the kids continue running off into the forest and sighs, its been a long night. When he turns to face Tobio again, his heart drops into his stomach.

Glimmering blue light is shimmering from the ends of Tobio’s hands and the half-spirit stares with wide eyes. The light is almost shining painfully, but Hinata is unable to look away. 

“Tobi?” 

Hinata turns to the forest in panic, “Was that boy a human?!” Tobio continues to stare down at the blue light piercing through his skin, but quickly turns to Hinata, eyes wide with shock. 

“Shou,” Tobio starts, his voice wavering. He holds his arms out, “I can… I can touch you!”

Hinata removes his mask and throws it to the ground, tears welling up in his eyes, but ignores them as the realization of their fate dawns onto him. He takes in Tobio’s form, shining blue glittering from his finger tips and floating up towards the night sky. 

He wraps his arms around Tobio, his skin just as soft and warm as he has imagined, and his hair as smooth as he has thought. Tobio’s arms wrap around Hinata tightly and for a moment, Hinata could convince himself that everything is right. 

Tobio’s form slowly shimmers into the sky, his yukata falling into Hinata’s arms, while Hinata falls to the ground, tears spilling down his cheeks. Fireflies begin to emerge from the grass, lighting up the expanse; Hinata turns to the sky watching as the final glimmering blue disappears into the sky with whispers of fondness and unspoken promises.

✧

Epilogue

“Doesn’t she look as healthy as ever?” Hinata’s grandfather asks as Hinata pets the orange tabby. Asuka has grown so much over the past few years, and after Hinata asked his grandfather to take her in, she’s grown extremely attached to the house and front garden. 

“She does, I’m glad.” Hinata whispers with a smile as he hands her a small treat. 

After she gladly takes it, Hinata turns toward his grandfather.

“Don’t start thanking me again for taking her in, Shouyou, I like her, you know that. Why would I mind?” His grandfather quickly tells him. Hinata cracks a smile, of course his grandfather could read him like that.

“Still, I can’t help it.” Hinata places a hand behind his head.

“I’m glad I can help out somehow, though. I hope…” Hinata’s grandfather pauses, a knowing smile on his face, “I hope you’re alright, Shouyou.” 

Hinata has never explicitly told his grandfather the truth about Tobio, but from the look on his grandfather’s face, he realizes that its impossible to hide from the man who’s looked over you every summer for the past decade of his life. 

“Did Natsu know?” Hinata couldn’t help but asking. 

“I don’t think either of us know everything, but I think a magical cat can tell us a lot of it,” his grandfather chuckles. 

Hinata takes in the large tree as he secures the scarf around his neck. It was early March and way too early in the morning at the moment. 

Hinata was sad to learn that for the first summer in a decade, he isn’t able to visit Takamori-machi. In June, he was trading Japan for Brazil, a long, long way from this forest. 

The late, winter chill brings goosebumps to Hinata’s skin as he begins to climb up the tree. However, he still takes his time reaching the top. 

Hinata sits on the same branch he did the last time he was up here, glancing at the upper branch with a small smile. “This really is a nice view,” Hinata says to himself. Hinata stares out into the forest, taking in the seemingly unending green hitting against the rising sun.

The last eight years he’s spent with Tobio is not something Hinata may easily forget, nor are they something he wants to forget. The moments of Tobio holding out an onigiri for Hinata, offering to set for him, and just simply gazing at Hinata with his wondrous, genuine eyes. 

Thank you isn’t enough, I love you isn’t enough, words are simply not enough to describe this feeling that pounds in his chest when he realizes just how much the half-spirit has effected him.

In the end, Hinata is willing to let himself take in the memories and unspoken promises and begin to truly let them sink in.

Hinata takes a deep breath, watching as the fog from his mouth unfurls in front of him and disappears into the cold air. He looks towards the horizon, and finds himself smiling softly to himself. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading this story!! it is so appreciated and i hope you have an amazing day.
> 
> once again, thank you so much to benji for drawing the most beautiful art for this fic. check [it out](https://twitter.com/strwberrymilked/status/1340498309278965760?s=11>their%20art!</a>%0A%0AAnd!%20Here%20is%20my%20playlist%20to%20this%20fic:%20<a%20href=) if you haven't!
> 
> find me on [sunbeamshou](https://twitter.com/sunbeamshou) and talk about hq with me!


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